Poplar Student Earns Honor From NASA
NASA has announced two winners and acknowledged 18 honorees in the Lunabotics Junior Contest, a national competition where K-12 students were challenged to design a robot that can dig and move lunar soil (regolith) from one area of the lunar South Pole to a holding container near a future Artemis Moon base.
One of these honorees is Colton Tolman of Poplar who is a finalist and submitted this entry: https://www.futureengineers. org/lunaboticsjunior/ gallery/55146 .
This contest was issued in collaboration with NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and the Office of STEM Engagement. “Looking at the designs these students submitted for Lunabotics Junior, it’s impossible not to be excited about the future of the Artemis Generation,” said Mike Kincaid, NASA’s associate administrator for the Office of STEM Engagement. “Their creativity and enthusiasm shine through in their ideas for a robot capable of mining lunar regolith.”
NASA’s Artemis Program will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon and establish longterm lunar science and exploration capabilities that will serve as a springboard for future exploration of Mars. Lunar regolith is instrumental in this development and could be used to create lunar concrete, reducing the amount and cost of materials that need to be transported from Earth. The Artemis Program will use what is learned on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending astronauts to Mars.
As NASA sets out to inspire a whole new generation, the Artemis Generation, the contest invited students to design and name their robot, including a 150-word description about it and up to 6 images or illustrations.
Approximately 2,300 robot designs were received from K-12 students across the country and nearly 500 educators, professionals, and space enthusiasts offered their time as volunteer judges, to review the thousands of robot designs. On March 15, judges selected 20 semifinalists, each of whom won a Lunabotics Junior Prize Pack. On March 22, the 20 semifinalists were narrowed down to 8 finalists that will receive a virtual education session with a NASA expert.
On March 29, two winners were selected from the eight finalists, 15-year-old Shriya Sawant, of Cumming, Ga., with her RAD: Regolith Accretion Device design. Lucia Grisanti, 9, from Toms River, N.J. won with her design of Olympus. Each robot successfully accomplished the task of collecting and transporting regolith across rugged lunar terrain.
