Inaugural Lunabotics Mining Competition Goes Live With NASA EDGE

NASA EDGE, an award-winning agency talk show, will host a live webcast from the Lunabotics Mining Competition at 11 a.m. EDT on May 28 from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Astronaut Hall of Fame.

More than 20 university teams from around the country built remote-controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, for the competition. NASA EDGE will take viewers behind the scenes as the
teams prepare their robots for lunar excavation.

The mining competition is a NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, fields. It also provides a competitive environment that may result in innovative ideas and solutions that could be applied to actual lunar excavation for NASA.

To view the webcast, visit:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-edge3

Video highlights of the setup, practice and competition will air on the NASA TV Video File. For downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Images of the event will be posted in the Kennedy Media Gallery at:
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov

For more information about the competition and a list of participating
teams, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/lunabotics