Lunar Digging Bots Roll Away with $750,000 in Prizes

Robot diggers successfully completed a timed trial for the
first time at NASA's lunar dirt excavation challenge.

Robots have finally risen to meet NASA's moon dirt digging
competition after three years of failure. Three robotics
teams took away a total of $750,000 in prize money by proving
they could dig at least 330 pounds of simulated lunar regolith
within half an hour.

The first place robot alone excavated 1,103 pounds of dirt
and deposited it in a container within the time limit.
Competitors not only had to dig out the sticky regolith
grains, but also had to be light enough to meet a weight
restriction of no more than 176 pounds.

Timed trials took place this past Sunday at NASA's Ames
Research Center in California. The U.S. space agency has
previously tested other robots and lunar digging equipment in
Hawaii.

SPACE.com reports that Paul's Robotics of Worcester, Mass.
claimed the top prize of $500,000. Two California teams,
Terra Engineering and Team Braundo, took home the second and
third place prizes of $150,000 and $100,000, respectively.

The robotic runoff came as part of NASA's "Centennial
Challenges," which have previously included extreme
competitions to build space elevators.