With less than a week before the final event of the 2025 NASA Lunabotics Challenge, members of The University of Alabama Astrobotics team were working in shifts to fine-tune their lunar robot. Fourteen-hour days weren’t unusual. And they loved it.
The annual competition sees university teams design and build an autonomous and remotely controlled rover capable of navigating the moon’s surface. The teams work all year, with deliverables along the way, culminating in a final in-person event at the Astronauts Memorial Foundation’s Center for Space Education at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.
In total, 38 college teams earned an invitation to Florida. These teams had met all of the deliverables and proven to competition judges that they had a working robot. The machines were required to dig up lunar regolith, carry it back to a predetermined spot, and build a low mound, or berm. Teams earned points in a variety of categories like weight and autonomous features. The task or point values may change year over year, with certain things carrying more value to reflect mission priorities.
Scoring for the competition recognizes an overall winner, winners in several categories and special prizes. The University of Alabama Astrobotics team earned a second-place finish in the autonomy category and third in berm construction, with additional recognition for Best Use of Reviews as Control Gates.
Watch the UA Astrobotics rover in action at the Kennedy Space Center.
Counting down to launch day
The room where UA’s lunar robots are born contains an acrylic-walled arena filled with fine, pale-tan dust, a simulated lunar regolith. Shelves and tables along the walls hold everything from nuts and bolts to a sewing machine. In the room, one student swept up sawdust, others talked in front of a whiteboard, another sat in front of a code-filled screen and one sat at a table methodically running a de-burring tool over the edges of a hexagon-shaped slug of metal.
Dr. Kenneth Ricks, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the team’s faculty adviser, entered the lab. He eyed the robot, which was in two pieces. A student walked him through the small changes they’d made to troubleshoot an issue discovered in testing. The rover had been collecting too much of the fine dust in each trip, which hampered operation of other parts.
“It’s hard to see her on stilts,” Ricks said of the rover. “But it’s better to do it right than do it fast.”
Every year, the team can learn from previous years’ work, but they have to build their machine from the ground up from a mix of fabricated and purchased parts. Sophisticated sensors that enable autonomous features, for example, must be purchased.
“If it’s aluminum,” said Tristan Fuchs, the team lead and mechanical lead, “we make it ourselves.”
Beyond engineering
Kendrick Tate, this year’s budget and procurement lead, earned his master’s degree this year on the University’s STEM path to MBA intended to empower science and tech entrepreneurs.
His challenges this year were not technical. Instead, he earned hands-on experience with shipping lead times, vendor approvals, and international customs. Alongside the engineering challenges, participants also learn the “soft” skills associated with team dynamics and project management.
Madeline Schultz was the youngest-ever team member, a homeschooled senior in high school and enrolled in UA’s Early College program. As the outreach and social media lead, she planned more than a dozen outreach activities and wrote the outreach paper required as one of the project’s deliverables. She earned her spot on the team through persistence and enthusiasm, and she plans to repeat the experience next year when she enrolls at UA.
Legendary Robotics
As team lead, Fuchs was keenly aware of the pressure that comes from past successes. UA Astrobotics teams have taken first place in 9 of the last 13 competitions. But even their mistakes are valuable, he said, because they can learn from them now rather than in their first job.
With even simple technology, a host of things can go wrong at any time. Fielding a robot at the Kennedy Space Center is already a triumph. Ricks reminds his students that there are a lot of ways to define a positive outcome.
“We know what our robot can do,” said Ricks. “If our robot goes out and does what it is designed to do, that’s a success.”