The team will have to build a remote-controlled autonomous excavator that can collect a minimum 10 kg lunar stimulant within 15 minutes. NASA experts would judge the competitors’ models.
NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition is a university-level competition designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The competition encourages innovation among the students. The innovative ideas generated at the competition may also benefit NASA in its to lunar missions.
Students from here are among the few selected teams from universities and technical institutions all over the world who have been invited to the international conference.
The BIT team would be led by Peetak Mitra, a second-year undergraduate student of civil engineering. According to him BIT, Patna is the only institute from eastern India that has been selected for the competition.
Reports said that the winners of the competition would get an opportunity to participate in the NASA Desert Research and Technology Studies. NASA also plans to incorporate the winning design into its scheme of things while planning its Moon Mission 2020, barring a few changes.
For Subhomoy Ghosh, another team member and a second-year undergraduate student of civil engineering, it is a big achievement.
The focus of the competition is on developing a low-cost and technologically superior rover-cum-excavator. The robot is designed on the principle of Archimedes Screw.
The director of BIT, Patna, K KSrivastva, said it is a matter great pride for the institute that for the first time students from any technical institute in Bihar have been selected to participate in an international competition related to lunar excavations. He further added that the institute is providing full co-operation to the students who are giving finishing touches to the project.

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