In preparation for NASA’s Artemis mission, which involves sending humans back to the moon, experts are turning to college students for assistance.
The 2026 Lunabotics Challenge kicks off this week, giving students a chance to make their mark on the moon.
This year, there’s a call for college students to design robots capable of constructing berms from regolith, the fine dust covering the lunar surface. NASA highlights the necessity of these berms for providing blast protection during lunar landings, creating shaded areas for fuel, and acting as shields for nuclear reactors.
Robert Mueller, a senior technologist at NASA, expressed enthusiasm for the ongoing Lunabotics competition, which aligns with the development of new technologies for the Moon to Mars initiatives under the Artemis program.
The robots that student teams need to build will interact with moon dust simulant, which is much finer than Earth soil, with particle sizes smaller than a millimeter.
This challenge is available to U.S. college students, with registration open from September 8 to September 28. Participants must submit a project management plan, career engagement report, presentation and demonstration, systems engineering paper, robot data report, proof of life video, and a working prototype of their robot.
The qualifying event will take place from May 14-17, 2026, at the University of Central Florida’s Florida Space Institute Exolith Lab. The competition finals are scheduled for May 19-21, 2026, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Teams will be given points based on how their robot performs in the challenge and finals.
“Excavating and moving regolith is a fundamental need to build infrastructure on the Moon and Mars and this competition creates 21st century skills in the future workforce,” Mueller said.
NASA’s Lunabotics Challenge has occurred annually since 2010. It is one of several Artemis Student Challenges, including the Student Launch and Human Exploration Rover Challenges.
NASA’s Artemis campaign is the space administration’s attempt to return to the moon. Artemis I launched in 2022. It was the first flight test of NASA’s Deep Space Exploration Systems. These include the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch Systems.
Next up, Artemis II. Scheduled to launch in 2026, it will be the first time humans will orbit the moon since the 1970’s. The 10 day mission is scheduled for an April launch.
Finally, in 2027, Artemis III will land on the moon. That mission will last 30 days and will include several moonwalks, experiments and the first photos taken by an astronaut of the moon’s south pole.
