{"id":45753,"date":"2016-05-06T13:20:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T23:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=45753"},"modified":"2020-03-13T13:11:41","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T23:11:41","slug":"space-robotics-team-heading-to-nasa-robotics-competition-at-kennedy-space-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2016\/05\/06\/space-robotics-team-heading-to-nasa-robotics-competition-at-kennedy-space-center\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> Hilo space robotics team heading to NASA<\/abbr> robotics competition at Kennedy Space Center"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
\"student
The UH<\/abbr> Hilo Space Robotics Team, from left, Carli Hand, Joerg Michael Weber, Ethan Paguirigan, Daryl Albano, Derek Hand and Stephanie Mapes. (photo by Marc Roberts)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University Space Robotics Team<\/a> from the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> is heading to Kennedy Space Center, Florida, for the team’s inaugural appearance at the <NASA<\/abbr> Robotic Mining Competition<\/a> event, May 16–20. The competition is for university-level students to design and build a mining robot that can traverse the simulated Martian chaotic terrain.<\/p>\n

The team is comprised of UH<\/abbr> Hilo students Ethan Paguirigan<\/strong>, Carli Hand<\/strong>, Daryl Albano<\/strong>, Derek Hand<\/strong>, Stephane Mapes<\/strong> and Michael Weber<\/strong> with faculty team leader Marc Roberts<\/strong>. Roberts is a lecturer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy<\/a>, the physics lab coordinator and also works at the Maunakea Visitor Information Center<\/a> running the Remote Imaging Program to ʻImiloa<\/span> Astronomy Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team’s mining robot (named “Spock” after a famous Vulcan), will collect and navigate avoiding obstacles to scoop Mars regolith simulant, then transport to the collection bin at the starting gate within a 10 minute competition heat. This open design event is crucial to NASA<\/abbr>’s Journey to Mars—it is the first step in ISRU<\/abbr> (in-situ resource utilization) where materials found in space are processed into needed resources such as oxygen, water, rocket fuel and construction materials.<\/p>\n

The University Space Robotics Team has come a long way from initial designs, testing various prototypes and learning associated skills like Auto CAD<\/abbr>, linux\/arduino programming, machining and electronics, mostly via their extra-curricular work.<\/p>\n

After a false start last year—their robot was not ready in time for RMC<\/abbr> 2015 and did not make it to Florida—the team regrouped and performed successfully at the local Robotic International Space Mining competition<\/a> in July 2015 at a Mars analog site on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island.<\/p>\n

Space Robotics Club sponsor<\/h2>\n

The Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES)<\/a> has been promoting college-level robotics at UH<\/abbr> Hilo by sponsoring the Space Robotics Club for the past four years, and fielding an robotic mining competition team for the past two.<\/p>\n

John Hamilton<\/strong><\/a>, logistics and education\/public outreach manager at PISCES<\/abbr> and an instructor with the UH<\/abbr> Hilo physics and astronomy department, is the club faculty advisor and an invited judge at the NASA<\/abbr> competition for four years.<\/p>\n

Read the UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories article<\/a> for more information. (Adapted from an article in the PISCES<\/abbr> Newsletter, with permission. The UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories post has been revised with additional information and clarifications.)<\/p>\n

\"\"
The UH<\/abbr> Hilo robot was blessed on May 6 by Kahuna Nui Kimo Pihana, a cultural practitioner and former Maunakea ranger. (UH<\/abbr> Hilo courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

—From UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

—By Susan Enright<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> Hilo students will be designing and building a mining robot that can traverse the Martian terrain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":45755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[545,660,14,907],"class_list":["post-45753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-physics-and-astronomy","tag-student-recognition","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/hilo-robotics-team.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45753"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113604,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45753\/revisions\/113604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}