Completion of the lunar robotics competition in the Netherlands

 

A competition for wheeled, walking lunar robots sponsored by the European Space Agency has ended in the Netherlands.

13 teams from Europe and Canada participated in the month-long competition. Organizers plan to announce the winners soon.

The tournament was called the Space Resources Challenge – a test of space resources. According to the terminology, researchers and institutes had to develop and prove a system consisting of one or more machines that had the ability to explore resources on the Moon. The competition took place in a pavilion that mimics the surface of the moon. The lighting conditions changed periodically, and sometimes the regulators imitated the loss of wireless communication with the device.

“The agency is still analyzing the results of the field tests, which have been very extensive,” says ESA spokesman Massimo Sabatini. – We saw a large number of participants and different approaches to the reconnaissance problem: vehicles that drive and walk, operate alone and in a group, and also fly.

Exploration of resources is necessary to extract them further – not for delivery to Earth, but for the construction of a long-term lunar base. The use of local resources will significantly reduce the weight of the goods that need to be transported from the ground. The search for resources will be both visually and with the help of spectrometers.

The agency will conclude contracts worth 375,000 euros, with five winners, after a year, after new field trials, this amount will increase.