Finalist MoonBots teams down to the Wire

Twenty finalist MoonBots teams continue preparations for their "final mission challenge" in the student competition, complimentary to the Google Lunar X PRIZE contest. More than two hundred teams from sixteen nations originally completed requirements for the first phase of the MoonBots Challenge before the final twenty qualified last April. The contest was open to students between the ages of nine and eighteen.

Using LEGO bricks and MINDSTORMS components, the MoonBots contest requires the teams to create simulated lunar rovers and use them to complete a series of predetermined tasks.

As the contest comes down to the last lap, teams are very busy blogging about their experiences, writing about obstacles overcome lessons learned. Some teams are completing their live missions a bit early to prevent any clash with school schedules.

Judges mentioned being impressed with results from all entries during earlier rounds. “Teams with little or no previous experience with robotics or with CAD software are engaging in this competition on equal terms with veterans,” said Steven Canvin, marketing manager for LEGO MINDSTORMS.

Surveys of participating students reveal nearly half report significant increases in understanding of the Moon and lunar exploration and skills gained using a variety of professional software applications.

“The students are learning to combine several challenging skills and to apply them in a new way. The MoonBots Challenge has required them to get creative, to find imaginative ways to express how they’ve used science, technology, engineering and mathematics to solve problems,” Canvin said.

The twenty finalists MoonBots teams 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); and Yellow Jackets (Michigan, USA).

All twenty finalist teams will receive a LEGO MINDSTORMS kit, two-year subscriptions to WIRED and all of the LEGO bricks used to build the simulated lunar surface necessary in the final phase of the competition.

“MOONBOTS” challenges parent-child teams to conduct Google-Lunar X-Prize missions with LEGO Robots

Major technology companies join forces to inspire the next generation of innovators, thinkers and engineers.

Austin – The X PRIZE Foundation, Google Inc., LEGO Systems, National Instruments, and Wired’s GeekDad will announce “MoonBots: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge” today at National Instruments NIWeek 2009. The new contest will challenge small teams comprised of children and adults to design, program, and construct robots that perform simulated lunar missions similar to those required to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, a private race to the Moon designed to enable commercial exploration of space while engaging the global public. To further this purpose, the X PRIZE Foundation and Google have now joined forces with three other well known technology companies to offer a competition that will stimulate learning of robotics and team building while exciting students and their families about their potential roles in the new Moon race.

“The Google Lunar X PRIZE is helping to open a new era of lunar exploration that will involve much broader participation than the first Moon race,” said William Pomerantz, Senior Director for Space Prizes at the X PRIZE Foundation. “We want students and their parents to understand that they can tackle difficult engineering problems and generate important new ideas regardless of their age or their background—and that they can have fun doing so. This contest is quite accessible for even very young children, but still demands creativity, intelligence, and hard work. It’s a perfect starting point for the next generation of rocket scientists!”

Once registration for the contest opens, teams will be asked to submit designs illustrating how they will build, program and operate their robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS robotic kits. There will be no charge to enter the contest and registration will be open to teams across the globe.

Read the full story HERE.