MoonScraper is the best method for moving lunar soil
(26/10/2009)

Lunar Regolith is the scientific term for moon dirt. It's a heavy, fine, and cohesive sand that covers the moon's surface several meters deep. Because of these properties Lunar Regolith is difficult to dig.

A group of University of B.C. students, sponsored by Miskin Scrapers Works, Inc., have created a robotic MoonScraper that competed at a NASA-sponsored robotics challenge. The aim was to create a robot that could move the most simulated moon dirt in a 30-minute timed trial. About 20 teams competed in the NASA Regolith Excavator Centennial Challenge at Ames Research Air Force Base in Mountain View, California.

At NASA’s prior Challenges, competitors exhibited impressive robotic controls and sophisticated electronics. However, because not enough emphasis was placed on dirt moving efficiency, none were able to meet the minimum requirement for material moved.

NASA has developed a reactor that can extract oxygen, hydrogen, and other useful elements from Lunar Regolith. This development makes building a moon base more practical. With locally made oxygen to breath and hydrogen for fuel, one more step to combine the two elements produces water. Thus Lunar Regolith excavation technology will be essential to future space exploration projects.

"We based our design on Miskin Scrapers because they are easier to load" said Amy Cheng, 32, Team Leader, a computer science student with a background in mining. "Energy on the moon is incredibly expensive, so the machine must be able to load efficiently".

Like it’s terrestrial counterparts, Miskin SR-1 MoonScraper features multiple bowls that are loaded independently requiring much less energy and time compared to a single larger bowl.

Unlike earthly scrapers, the MoonScraper features bi-directional loading, with bowls facing each other. The MoonScraper loads the 1st bowl traveling one direction, then reverses to load the 2nd bowl. Because of this, maneuvering time is reduced. Both bowls are carried between the robot’s tracks, rather than pulled behind. The MoonScraper must also navigate around objects (rocks) placed randomly on the course. The MoonScraper then climbs a steep ramp and dumps its loads into a hopper.

John Meech, 62, a professor of mining engineering, has overseen the three-year $60,000 project. Thunderbirds Robotics is an extra-curricular university club founded by Meech five years ago. Meech said the students have gained valuable and immeasurable experience working as a team and thinking outside the box, in coming up with innovative engineering solutions for what he describes as a very difficult challenge.

To qualify for the prize the MoonScraper must collect 150 kg (330 lbs) of simulated Lunar Regolith in under 30 minutes. Meech says the Miskin SR-1 MoonScraper robot is capable of collecting up to 300 kilograms within the specified time limit.

The robot is slightly smaller than a office desk, with triangular rubber tracks on either side of its dual bowls. It sports a large Domino's Pizza sticker to represent the $25,000 worth of pizza the company has donated to Thunderbirds Robotics team. It runs by remote-control during loading and maneuvering, and autonomously as it ascends/descends the ramp to the unloading area.

At the competition, instead of looking at the machine directly Josh Weinstein, 28, operated the machine by radar and laser guidelines displayed on a computer screen with a two-second delay in order to simulate how the MoonScraper would be operated on the moon remotely from earth.

“In the sand hills of eastern Idaho in 1917, when scrapers were pulled by horses, my grandfather figured out how to make his scrapers load easier. We use those same design principles on our scrapers today. It’s exciting to see Arthur Miskin’s original design applied beyond our world.” said Mark Miskin, President, Miskin Scraper Works, Inc.

The MoonScraper loaded faster and with less energy required than other contestants at the challenge. It also generated far less dust, and was very maneuverable. It hauled 60kg of materials in the 3 cycles it completed. However they had hoped to complete 10-12 cycles. Computer communications issues prevented them from operating all of the time. The low dust, low power requirement, maneuverability, and compact, simple robust design impressed the NASA officials.

Due to some NASA network interface issues they were not able to operate for the full half hour, so the robot sat idle for much of the time. Almost all of the contestants had the same problem, which severely limited or completely incapacitated their excavating machines. Another team who did not have the network problems, won the competition, although their machine may not be practical to use on the moon.

“We tested various excavation machines on NASA’s simulated moon surface” said Miskin, “a scraper turned out to be the best method for moving lunar soil.”