Join the NASA Minority Innovation Challenges Institute this afternoon at 3 p.m. EDT for a presentation profiling the Lunabotics Mining Competition. This presentation will be conducted by Gloria Murphy, project manager of the Lunabotics Mining Competition at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Lunabotics Mining Competition is a university-level competition designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The challenge is for students to design and build a remote-controlled or autonomous excavator (lunabot) that can collect and deposit a minimum of 10 kilograms of lunar simulant within 15 minutes. The complexities of the challenge include the abrasive characteristics of the lunar simulant, the weight and size limitations of the lunabot, and the ability to control the lunabot from a remote control center. NASA will benefit directly from the competition by encouraging the development of innovative lunar excavation concepts from universities that may result in clever ideas and solutions that could be applied to an actual lunar excavation device or payload.

Following this opening session, additional presentations will feature subject matter experts presenting on such topics as wireless communication challenges, building the Lunabotics field, some soil mechanics, lessons learned, and input from the university robot teams that competed.

All presentations will be open to questions and answers at the conclusion. Presentations are free to any student or faculty member registered in NASA MICI. To attend this presentation today, Wednesday, July 7, 2010, or to register to view past presentations, please visit http://NASAMICIconference.com.

For more information about the NASA Minority Innovation Challenges Institute, visit http://nasamici.com/.

Questions about this event should be directed to Gloria Murphy at Gloria.A.Murphy@nasa.gov