The University of Utah in Salt Lake City is the winner.
The Utah Student Robotics Club (19459023) won the grand prize Artemis Award for NASA’s Lunabotics Challenge 2025 held at The Astronauts Memorial Foundation Center for Space Education, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Florida on May 22, 2018.
Brycen Chaney is the president of student robots at the University of Utah. “Win was our mantra for the entire year,” he said. “We had an objective to take our competition and team a step forward, but winning was right in front of our minds.” The University of Utah students used their robots to excavate simulated Regolith, loose, fragmented materials on the Moon’s Surface, as well as build a berm. The students competed against 37 teams and won the grand prize during the Lunabotics Challenge for the first time.
During the 16th Annual Lunabotics University Challenge, the teams continued to raise standards on excavating and transporting lunar regolith with clever remotely controlled robotics, said Robert Mueller, lead judge and cofounder of the original Lunabotics robot mining challenge. “New designs were revealed and each team had an unique design and operation approach.”
Elijah Wilkinson is a senior and team leader at the University of Illinois Chicago. “Our team worked long and hard to achieve this. Teamwork was the key to success. We had people who designed the robotic, programmed it, wrote papers, wired it, and people who wrote the papers. The award is given to the teams who score the most points during berm-building in the Artemis Arena. Teams are evaluated on the robot’s ability of constructing berms with excavated regolith, demonstrating effective lunar construction techniques. Click on the links below to see the robots in action of the Robot Construction Award Winners: University of Illinois Chicago, University of Utah, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa,
Students at Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana were awarded the Caterpillar Autonomy award for their work. The University of Alabama came in second, followed by University of Akron (Ohio). Michigan Technological University was fourth, followed by University of Illinois Chicago and University of North Carolina Charlotte. This award is given to teams that have completed competition activities successfully and autonomously. It emphasizes the implementation of autonomous control system in lunar robotics that reflects real-life applications in remote and automated operation.
As part of the Innovation Award, an Artemis I flag that flew during the Nov. 16-2022 mission was presented to University of Illinois Chicago and University of Virginia Charlottesville. The award is given to teams who have come up with innovative ideas, created efficiency, achieved effective results, or solved a problem.
Dr. Eric Meloche, from the College of DuPage, in Glen Ellyn in Illinois, and Jennifer Erickson from the Colorado School of Mines, in Golden, each received the Artemis Educator Award. This award is given to educators, faculty or mentors who inspire students through their work.
University of Utah won the Effective Use of Communications Power Award and University of Virginia received the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science Award.
Students at the Colorado School of Mines won a Systems Engineering Award.
Kurt Leucht
Commentator, Lunabotics Competition and Software Development team lead.
Kurt Leucht.
Lunabotics Competition and software development team lead.
Other awards:
- Systems Engineering Paper Award Nova Award, The University of Utah.
- The University of Alabama.
- The University of Alabama.
- Systems Engineering Paper Award Leaps and Bounds Award, The University of Miami.
- The University of Buffalo, New York.
- University of Buffalo, New York.[196590][196590][196590][196590][196590][196590]
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