YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Youngstown State University’s Lunabotics team, the Moon Miners, earned third place overall in the 2024 NASA Lunabotics Challenge.
Lunabotics is a national engineering competition that tasks college teams with designing autonomous robots capable of mining simulated lunar soil.
In addition to placing third overall, the Moon Miners also earned third place in autonomy, receiving a $250 award and plaque. The team also placed third in construction, earning an additional $250 award and plaque.
The team scored more than 600 total points and brought home a trophy, demonstrating exceptional performance across all categories of the challenge.
While many teams fielded 15 to 30 students from mechanical, electrical, computer science and graduate programs, often supported by budgets between $25,000 and $30,000 and backed by sponsors such as Caterpillar, Boeing, Collins Aerospace and Vermeer, YSU’s team consisted of six senior electrical engineering students and one sophomore, working with a budget of $5,500.
Instead of using advanced software like the Robot Operating System, commonly deployed by teams and NASA’s own rovers, the YSU team constructed its robot using a $5 Arduino microcontroller and code written in a day by students Ayomide Hector Olukoya and Austin Zeigler.
Despite the constraints, YSU outperformed many larger and better-funded teams, including Iowa State University, the back-to-back Lunabotics champion in 2023 and 2024.
The team’s approach and design drew attention from NASA, MIT, Collins Aerospace, Raytheon and Pratt & Whitney, all of whom observed the competition live.