Regolith Excavation Challenge Results

Prize Remains Elusive - Matt at the California Space Authority. The year's competition is over, but demos (valuable testing for next year!) continue. This post gives the following links:

Some Pictures from Saturday Morning

Some Pictures from Saturday Afternoon

You'll see people like NASA Centennial Challenge's Andrew Petro and The Space Show's David Livingston (expect a Regolith Space Show episode soon) in the pictures.

NASA Prize Elusive as Moon Excavators Struggle in Sandbox - press release:

Eight teams competing in the 2008 Regolith Excavation Challenge came up short in winning the NASA purse of $750,000, but more determined to compete in a rematch for 2009. ...

Twenty-five teams registered for the challenge. Sixteen teams traveled to San Luis Obispo to compete with half that number withdrawing due to last-minute mechanical and logistical problems. The final teams to compete were:

Waldbaum, Sunnyvale, CA
Next Step, Houston, TX
Tech Ranch, Arroyo Grande, CA
LuneOreDiggers, Denver, CO
Cal Poly Slobotics, San Luis Obispo, CA
Team of One, Detroit, MI
Toy Garden, Friday Harbor, WA
Boppers, Huntington Beach, CA

Here's more:

Regolith Excavation Challenge update - RLV News - This includes several articles (the KSBY 6 one also has a video with interviews and excavator shots) and a link to the Regolith Challenge Twitter feed that lets you follow the event.

There's also a NASAPrize Twitter feed - NASA Centennial Challenges. It looks like it started in recent weeks, and it's covering the Regolith event. This gives a webcam link for the event. It looks like this feed will be used for other Centennial Challenges events.

IPP's Doug Comstock also has twitter posts on the Challenge, as well as other interesting activities. He gives an idea how the rankings went: No cash, but judges trophies to third place Team Walbaum, second to Cal Poly SLObotic, and first to Tech Ranch. Congrats!!

From LunOreDiggers:

Competition Day - a picture of the entry

Fail Sauce - details on their part of the event, and initial analysis of what went wrong