Not Exactly, But Contestants In "MoonBots" Educational Contest Will Use Snap-Together Bricks For Lunar Rover Design

The X PRIZE Foundation and LEGO Group have announced the twenty finalists for MoonBots, a global educational contest. Using LEGO bricks and MINDSTORMS components, the challenge requires teams of students to create simulated lunar rovers similar to those competing for Google Lunar X PRIZE, a competition that will award $30 million to privately funded teams that explore the surface of the Moon with innovative robots. More than two hundred teams from sixteen nations registered for MoonBots and completed the requirements of the first phase of the competition, which required both in-depth research about lunar exploration as well as the use of Computer Assisted Design (CAD) software to mock up a lunar robot.

The contest was open to students between the ages of nine and eighteen. Judges of the competition were impressed with the results from all of the entries. "Teams with little or no previous experience with robotics or with CAD software are engaging in the competition on equal terms with veteran teams," noted Steven Canvin, Marketing Manager for LEGO MINDSTORMS. A survey of participating students revealed that nearly half of them reported a significant increase in their knowledge of lunar exploration, and over half reported learning new skills with various CAD programs. "The students are learning to combine several challenging skills and to apply them in a new way. MoonBots requires them to get creative, and to find imaginative ways to express how they've used Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math to reach solutions to a difficult problem."

The twenty finalists are:

• ARES (Texas, USA)
• Coastal Quarks (California, USA)
• Cougar LEGO Robotics Team (Ohio, USA)
• Crandroids (Michigan, USA)
• G.I.R.L.S. (Missouri, USA)
• got robot? (Illinois, USA)
• Intergalactic Bacon (Florida, USA)
• Just Ducky (Minnesota, USA)
• Landroids (New Jersey, USA)
• LegoAces (Ohio, USA)
• Lunar Horizon (California, USA)
• Milkyway Monsters (Massachusetts, USA)
• Moonwalk (New Jersey/Connecticut, USA)
• New Hartford RoboSpartans (New York, USA)
• OABB 4-H Lego Robots (California, USA)
• Pushing Frontiers (Lovenjoel, Belguim)
• Team Tater Tot (Minnesota, USA)
• The Shadowed Craters (California, USA)
• WEBstormers (Cape Town, South Africa)
• Yellow Jackets (Michigan, USA)

All twenty teams will receive a LEGO MINDSTORMS kit, two year subscriptions to WIRED Magazine, and all of the LEGO bricks required to build a simulated lunar surface required in the next phase of the competition.

The X PRIZE Foundation and LEGO also announced several members of the expert judging panel that will decide upon the grand prize winners. Included among them are X PRIZE Foundation Trustees Anousheh Ansari, entrepreneur and private astronaut and Dean Kamen, inventor, entrepreneur, and founder of the F.I.R.S.T. robotics competitions. Also judging, are Steve Hassenplug, Master LEGO robot builder and Jeff Kodosky, co-Founder of the engineering firm National Instruments. "Selecting the finalists from the initial pool of candidates was an extraordinarily difficult task for our Phase One judges," said William Pomerantz, Senior Director of Space Prizes for the X PRIZE Foundation. "The quality of work was extremely high. All of our finalist teams are extraordinarily capable, so we expect the robots they build and the research they conduct to be extremely professional. Our expert judges have their work cut out for them!"

The twenty finalists will spend the next two months transforming their computer assisted designs into actual hardware, and perfecting a robot that can successfully explore a lunar surface built from LEGO components while performing a variety of tasks meant to simulate the requirements of the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE. The competition will culminate in a live "Mission Webcast" conducted by each team, wherein the will need to complete their simulated lunar mission on a tight three-minute timeline. Each team will also be required to submit a video documentary detailing how they put together their mission, and what they've learned from the competition. Thanks to the support of MoonBots partners Google, Inc., National Instruments, and WIRED Magazine's GeekDad blog, three winning teams will win prizes including registrations and start up kits to compete in the F.I.R.S.T. robotics competitions, iPod Touches, and a trip to LEGO's world headquarters in Denmark.

FMI: www.moonbots.org