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California Teams Win $1.5 Million in NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge
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By NASA
On Sept. 20, 2024, four students experienced the wonder of space exploration at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, taking part in an international competition that brought their work to life aboard the International Space Station.
Now in its fifth year, the Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC) continues to push the boundaries of robotics, bringing together the world’s brightest young minds for a real-world test of programming, problem-solving, and innovation.
The Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC) students tour the Gateway Habitation and Logistics Outpost module at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.NASA/Helen Arase Vargas The stakes reached new heights in this year’s competition, with 661 teams totaling 2,788 students from 35 countries and regions competing to program robots aboard the orbiting laboratory. Organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, the challenge provided a unique platform for students to test their skills on a global stage.
Meet Team Salcedo
Representing the U.S., Team Salcedo is composed of four talented students: Aaron Kantsevoy, Gabriel Ashkenazi, Justin Bonner, and Lucas Paschke. Each member brought a unique skill set and perspective, contributing to the team’s well-rounded approach to the challenge.
From left to right are Kibo-RPC students Gabriel Ashkenazi, Lucas Paschke, Aaron Kantsevoy, and Justin Bonner. NASA/Helen Arase Vargas The team was named in honor of Dr. Alvaro Salcedo, a robotics teacher and competitive robotics coach who had a significant impact on Kantsevoy and Bonner during high school. Dr. Salcedo played a crucial role in shaping their interests and aspirations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), inspiring them to pursue careers in these fields.
Kantsevoy, a computer science major at Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, led the team with three years of Kibo-RPC experience and a deep interest in robotics and space-based agriculture. Bonner, a second-year student at the University of Miami, is pursuing a triple major in computer science, artificial intelligence, and mathematics. Known for his quick problem-solving, he played a key role as a strategist and computer vision expert. Paschke, a first-time participant and computer science student at Georgia Tech, focused on intelligence systems and architecture, and brought fresh insights to the table. Ashkenazi, also studying computer science at Georgia Tech, specialized in computer vision and DevOps, adding depth to the team’s technical capabilities.
AstroBee Takes Flight
The 2024 competition tasked students with programming AstroBee, a free-flying robot aboard the station, to navigate a complex course while capturing images scattered across the orbital outpost. For Team Salcedo, the challenge reached its peak as their code was tested live on the space station.
The Kibo-RPC students watch their code direct Astrobee’s movements at Johnson Space Center with NASA Program Specialist Jamie Semple on Sept. 20, 2024.NASA/Helen Arase Vargas The robot executed its commands in real time, maneuvering through the designated course to demonstrate precision, speed, and adaptability in the microgravity environment. Watching AstroBee in action aboard the space station offered a rare glimpse of the direct impact of their programming skills and added a layer of excitement that pushed them to fine-tune their approach.
Overcoming Challenges in Real Time
Navigating AstroBee through the orbital outpost presented a set of unique challenges. The team had to ensure the robot could identify and target images scattered throughout the station with precision while minimizing the time spent between locations.
The Kibo-RPC students watch in real time as the free-flying robot Astrobee performs maneuvers aboard the International Space Station, executing tasks based on their input to test its capabilities. NASA/Helen Arase Vargas Using quaternions for smooth rotation in 3D space, they fine-tuned AstroBee’s movements to adjust camera angles and capture images from difficult positions without succumbing to the limitations of gimbal lock. Multithreading allowed the robot to simultaneously process images and move to the next target, optimizing the use of time in the fast-paced environment.
The Power of Teamwork and Mentorship
Working across different locations and time zones, Team Salcedo established a structured communication system to ensure seamless collaboration. Understanding each team member’s workflow and adjusting expectations accordingly helped them maintain efficiency, even when setbacks occurred.
Team Salcedo tour the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility with their NASA mentors (from top left to right) Education Coordinator Kaylie Mims, International Space Station Research Portfolio Manager Jorge Sotomayer, and Kibo-RPC Activity Manager Jamie Semple. NASA/Helen Arase Vargas Mentorship was crucial to their success, with the team crediting several advisors and educators for their guidance. Kantsevoy acknowledged his first STEM mentor, Casey Kleiman, who sparked his passion for robotics in middle school.
The team expressed gratitude to their Johnson mentors, including NASA Program Specialist Jamie Semple, Education Coordinator Kaylie Mims, and International Space Station Research Portfolio Manager Jorge Sotomayer, for guiding them through the program’s processes and providing support throughout the competition.
They also thanked NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement for offering the opportunity to present their project to Johnson employees.
“The challenge mirrors how the NASA workforce collaborates to achieve success in a highly technical environment. Team Salcedo has increased their knowledge and learned skills that they most likely would not have acquired individually,” said Semple. “As with all of our student design challenges, we hope this experience encourages the team to continue their work and studies to hopefully return to NASA in the future as full-time employees.”
Pushing the Boundaries of Innovation
The Kibo-RPC allowed Team Salcedo to experiment with new techniques, such as Slicing Aided Hyperinference—an approach that divides images into smaller tiles for more detailed analysis. Although this method showed promise in detecting smaller objects, it proved too time-consuming under the competition’s time constraints, teaching the students valuable lessons about prioritizing efficiency in engineering.
The Kibo-RPC students present their robotic programming challenge to the International Space Station Program. NASA/Bill Stafford For Team Salcedo, the programming challenge taught them the value of communication, the importance of learning from setbacks, and the rewards of perseverance. The thrill of seeing their code in action on the orbital outpost was a reminder of the limitless possibilities in robotics and space exploration.
Inspiring the Next Generation
With participants from diverse backgrounds coming together to compete on a global platform, the Kibo-RPC continues to be a proving ground for future innovators.
The challenge tested the technical abilities of students and fostered personal growth and collaboration, setting the stage for the next generation of robotics engineers and leaders.
The Kibo-RPC students and their mentors at the Mission Control Center. NASA/Helen Arase Vargas
As Team Salcedo looks ahead, they carry with them the skills, experiences, and inspiration needed to push the boundaries of human space exploration.
“With programs like Kibo-RPC, we are nurturing the next generation of explorers – the Artemis Generation,” said Sotomayer. “It’s not far-fetched to imagine that one of these students could eventually be walking on the Moon or Mars.”
The winners were announced virtually from Japan on Nov. 9, with Team Salcedo achieving sixth place.
Watch the international final round event here.
For more information on the Kibo Robot Programming Challenge, visit: https://jaxa.krpc.jp/
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By Space Force
Seven teams made the final round in this year’s annual Fight Tonight competition and presented their concepts to U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command leaders Oct. 7.
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By European Space Agency
The Space Resources Challenge was launched last week, an opportunity for innovators to pioneer the technologies that will help humankind live and work sustainably on the Moon.
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By NASA
President John F. Kennedy’s national commitment to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade posed multiple challenges, among them how to train astronauts to land on the Moon, a place with no atmosphere and one-sixth the gravity on Earth. The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) and its successor the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) provided the training tool to simulate the final 200 feet of the descent to the lunar surface. The ungainly aircraft made its first flight on Oct. 30, 1964, at NASA’s Flight Research Center (FRC), now NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in California. The Apollo astronauts who completed landings on the Moon attributed their successes largely to training in these vehicles.
The first Lunar Landing Research Vehicle silhouetted against the rising sun on the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert.
In December 1961, NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., received an unsolicited proposal from Bell Aerosystems in Buffalo, New York, for a design of a flying simulator to train astronauts on landing a spacecraft on the Moon. Bell’s approach, using their design merged with concepts developed at NASA’s FRC, won approval and the space agency funded the design and construction of two Lunar Landing Research Vehicles (LLRV). At the time of the proposal, NASA had not yet chosen the method for getting to and landing on the Moon, but once NASA decided on Lunar Orbit Rendezvous in July 1962, the Lunar Module’s (LM) flying characteristics matched Bell’s proposed design closely enough that the LLRV served as an excellent trainer.
Two views of the first Lunar Landing Research Vehicle shortly after its arrival and prior to assembly at the Flight Research Center, now NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, in California.
Bell Aerosystems delivered the LLRV-1 to FRC on April 8, 1964, where it made history as the first pure fly-by-wire aircraft to fly in Earth’s atmosphere. Its design relied exclusively on an interface with three analog computers to convert the pilot’s movements to signals transmitted by wire and to execute his commands. The open-framed LLRV used a downward pointing turbofan engine to counteract five-sixths of the vehicle’s weight to simulate lunar gravity, two rockets provided thrust for the descent and horizontal translation, and 16 LM-like thrusters provided three-axis attitude control. The astronauts could thus simulate maneuvering and landing on the lunar surface while still on Earth. The LLRV pilot could use an aircraft-style ejection seat to escape from the vehicle in case of loss of control.
Left: The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle-1 (LLRV-1) during an engine test at NASA’s Flight Research Center (FRC), now NASA’s Armstrong Fight Research Center, in California’s Mojave Desert. Right: NASA chief test pilot Joseph “Joe” A. Walker, left, demonstrates the features of LLRV-1 to President Lyndon B. Johnson during his visit to FRC.
Engineers conducted numerous tests to prepare the LLRV for its first flight. During one of the engine tests, the thrust generated was higher than anticipated, lifting crew chief Raymond White and the LLRV about a foot off the ground before White could shut off the engines. On June 19, during an official visit to FRC, President Lyndon B. Johnson inspected the LLRV featured on a static display. The Secret Service would not allow the President to sit in the LLRV’s cockpit out of an overabundance of caution since the pyrotechnics were installed, but not yet armed, in the ejection seat. Following a Preflight Readiness Review held Aug. 13 and 14, managers cleared the LLRV for its first flight.
Left: NASA chief test pilot Joseph “Joe” A. Walker during the first flight of the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV). Right: Walker shortly after the first LLRV flight.
In the early morning of Oct. 30, 1964, FRC chief pilot Joseph “Joe” A. Walker arrived at Edwards Air Force Base’s (AFB) South Base to attempt the first flight of the LLRV. Walker, a winner of both the Collier Trophy and the Harmon International Trophy, had flown nearly all experimental aircraft at Edwards including 25 flights in the X-15 rocket plane. On two of his X-15 flights, Walker earned astronaut wings by flying higher than 62 miles, the unofficial boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space. After strapping into the LLRV’s ejection seat, Walker ran through the preflight checklist before advancing the throttle to begin the first flight. The vehicle rose 10 feet in the air, Walker performed a few small maneuvers and then made a soft landing after having flown for 56 seconds. He lifted off again, performed some more maneuvers, and landed again after another 56 seconds. On his third flight, the vehicle’s electronics shifted into backup mode and he landed the craft after only 29 seconds. Walker seemed satisfied with how the LLRV handled on its first flights.
Left: Lunar Landing Research Vehicle-2 (LLRV-2) during one of its six flights at the Flight Research Center, now NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, in California in January 1967. Right: NASA astronaut Neil A. Armstrong with LLRV-1 at Ellington Air Force Base in March 1967.
Walker took LLRV-1 aloft again on Nov. 16 and eventually completed 35 test flights with the vehicle. Test pilots Donald “Don” L. Mallick, who completed the first simulated lunar landing profile flight during the LLRV’s 35th flight on Sept. 8, 1965, and Emil E. “Jack” Kluever, who made his first flight on Dec. 13, 1965, joined Walker to test the unique aircraft. Joseph S. “Joe” Algranti and Harold E. “Bud” Ream, pilots at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, travelled to FRC to begin training flights with the LLRV in August 1966. Workers at FRC assembled the second vehicle, LLRV-2, during the latter half of 1966. In December 1966, after 198 flights workers transferred LLRV-1 to Ellington AFB near MSC for the convenience of astronaut training, and LLRV-2 followed in January 1967 after completing six test flights at FRC. The second LLRV made no further flights, partly because the three Lunar Landing Training Vehicles (LLTVs), more advanced models that better simulated the LM’s flying characteristics, began to arrive at Ellington in October 1967. Neil A. Armstrong completed the first astronaut flights aboard LLRV-1 on Mar. 23, 1967, and flew 21 flights before ejecting from the vehicle on May 6, 1968, seconds before it crashed. He later completed his lunar landing certification flights using LLTV-2 in June 1969, one month before peforming the actual feat on the Moon.
Left: Apollo 11 Commander Neil A. Armstrong prepares to fly a lunar landing profile in Lunar Landing Training Vehicle-2 (LLTV-2) in June 1969. Middle: Apollo 12 Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad prepares to fly LLTV-2 in July 1969. Right: Apollo 14 Commander Alan B. Shepard flies LLTV-3 in December 1970.
All Apollo Moon landing mission commanders and their backups completed their lunar landing certifications using the LLTV, and all the commanders attributed their successful landings to having trained in the LLTV. Apollo 8 astronaut William A. Anders, who along with Armstrong completed some of the early LLRV test flights, called the training vehicle “a much unsung hero of the Apollo program.” During the flight readiness review in January 1970 to clear LLTV-3 for astronaut flights, Apollo 11 Commander Armstrong and Apollo 12 Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad, who had by then each completed manual landings on the Moon, spoke positively of the LLTV’s role in their training. Armstrong’s overall impression of the LLTV: “All the pilots … thought it was an extremely important part of their preparation for the lunar landing attempt,” adding “It was a contrary machine, and a risky machine, but a very useful one.” Conrad emphasized that were he “to go back to the Moon again on another flight, I personally would want to fly the LLTV again as close to flight time as possible.” During the Apollo 12 technical debriefs, Conrad stated the “the LLTV is an excellent training vehicle for the final phases. I think it’s almost essential. I feel it really gave me the confidence that I needed.” During the postflight debriefs, Apollo 14 Commander Alan B. Shepard stated that he “did feel that the LLTV contributed to my overall ability to fly the LM during the landing.”
Left: Apollo 15 Commander David R. Scott flies Lunar Landing Training Vehicle-3 (LLTV-3) in June 1971. Middle: Apollo 16 Commander John W. Young prepares to fly LLTV-3 in March 1972. Right: Apollo 17 Commander Eugene A. Cernan prepares for a flight aboard LLTV-3 in October 1972.
David R. Scott, Apollo 15 commander, stated in the final mission report that “the combination of visual simulations and LLTV flying provided excellent training for the actual lunar landing. Comfort and confidence existed throughout this phase.” In the Apollo 15 postflight debrief, Scott stated that he “felt very comfortable flying the vehicle (LM) manually, because of the training in the LLTV, and there was no question in my mind that I could put it down where I wanted to. I guess I can’t say enough about that training. I think the LLTV is an excellent simulation of the vehicle.” Apollo 16 Commander John W. Young offered perhaps the greatest praise for the vehicle just moments after landing on the lunar surface: “Just like flying the LLTV. Piece of cake.” Young reiterated during the postflight debriefs that “from 200 feet on down, I never looked in the cockpit. It was just like flying the LLTV.” Apollo 17 Commander Eugene A. Cernan stated in the postflight debrief that “the most significant part of the final phases from 500 feet down, … was that it was extremely comfortable flying the bird. I contribute (sic) that primarily to the LLTV flying operations.”
Left: Workers move Lunar Landing Research Vehicle-2 from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center for display at the Air Force Test Flight Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. Right: Lunar Landing Training Vehicle-3 on display outside the Teague Auditorium at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
In addition to playing a critical role in the Moon landing program, these early research and test vehicles aided in the development of digital fly-by-wire technology for future aircraft. LLRV-2 is on display at the Air Force Flight Test Museum at Edwards AFB (on loan from AFRC). Visitors can view LLTV-3 suspended from the ceiling in the lobby of the Teague Auditorium at JSC.
The monograph Unconventional, Contrary, and Ugly: The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle provides an excellent and detailed history of the LLRV.
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
With one of its solar arrays deployed, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer sits in a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space. The large silver grate attached to the spacecraft is the radiator for HVM³, one of two instruments that the mission will use to better understand the lunar water cycle.Lockheed Martin Space There’s water on the Moon, but scientists only have a general idea of where it is and what form it is in. A trailblazing NASA mission will get some answers.
When NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer begins orbiting the Moon next year, it will help resolve an enduring mystery: Where is the Moon’s water? Scientists have seen signs suggesting it exists even where temperatures soar on the lunar surface, and there’s good reason to believe it can be found as surface ice in permanently shadowed craters, places that have not seen direct sunlight for billions of years. But, so far, there have been few definitive answers, and a full understanding of the nature of the Moon’s water cycle remains stubbornly out of reach.
This is where Lunar Trailblazer comes in. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and led by Caltech in Pasadena, California, the small satellite will map the Moon’s surface water in unprecedented detail to determine the water’s abundance, location, form, and how it changes over time.
“Making high-resolution measurements of the type and amount of lunar water will help us understand the lunar water cycle, and it will provide clues to other questions, like how and when did Earth get its water,” said Bethany Ehlmann, principal investigator for Lunar Trailblazer at Caltech. “But understanding the inventory of lunar water is also important if we are to establish a sustained human and robotic presence on the Moon and beyond.”
Future explorers could process lunar ice to create breathable oxygen or even fuel. And they could also conduct science. Using information from Lunar Trailblazer, future human or robotic scientific investigations could sample the ice for later study to determine where the water came from. For example, the presence of ammonia in ice samples may indicate the water came from comets; sulfur, on the other hand, could show that it was vented to the surface from the lunar interior when the Moon was young and volcanically active.
This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer in lunar orbit about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the surface of the Moon. The spacecraft weighs only 440 pounds (200 kilograms) and measures 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide when its solar panels are fully deployed.Lockheed Martin Space “In the future, scientists could analyze the ice in the interiors of permanently shadowed craters to learn more about the origins of water on the Moon,” said Rachel Klima, Lunar Trailblazer deputy principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “Like an ice core from a glacier on Earth can reveal the ancient history of our planet’s atmospheric composition, this pristine lunar ice could provide clues as to where that water came from and how and when it got there.”
Understanding whether water molecules move freely across the surface of the Moon or are locked inside rock is also scientifically important. Water molecules could move from frosty “cold traps” to other locations throughout the lunar day. Frost heated by the Sun sublimates (turning from solid ice to a gas without going through a liquid phase), allowing the molecules to move as a gas to other cold locations, where they could form new frost as the Sun moves overhead. Knowing how water moves on the Moon could also lead to new insights into the water cycles on other airless bodies, such as asteroids
Two Instruments, One Mission
Two science instruments aboard the spacecraft will help unlock these secrets: the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3) infrared spectrometer and the Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM) infrared multispectral imager.
Developed by JPL, HVM3 will detect and map the spectral fingerprints, or wavelengths of reflected sunlight, of minerals and the different forms of water on the lunar surface. The spectrometer can use faint reflected light from the walls of craters to see the floor of even permanently shadowed craters.
The LTM instrument, which was built by the University of Oxford and funded by the UK Space Agency, will map the minerals and thermal properties of the same lunar landscape. Together they will create a picture of the abundance, location, and form of water while also tracking how its distribution changes over time.
“The LTM instrument precisely maps the surface temperature of the Moon while the HVM3 instrument looks for the spectral signature of water molecules,” said Neil Bowles, instrument scientist for LTM at the University of Oxford. “Both instruments will allow us to understand how surface temperature affects water, improving our knowledge of the presence and distribution of these molecules on the Moon.”
Weighing only 440 pounds (200 kilograms) and measuring 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide when its solar panels are fully deployed, Lunar Trailblazer will orbit the Moon about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the surface. The mission was selected by NASA’s SIMPLEx (Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration) program in 2019 and will hitch a ride on the same launch as the Intuitive Machines-2 delivery to the Moon through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. Lunar Trailblazer passed a critical operational readiness review in early October at Caltech after completing environmental testing in August at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, where it was assembled.
The orbiter and its science instruments are now being put through flight system software tests that simulate key aspects of launch, maneuvers, and the science mission while in orbit around the Moon. At the same time, the operations team led by IPAC at Caltech is conducting tests to simulate commanding, communication with NASA’s Deep Space Network, and navigation.
More About Lunar Trailblazer
Lunar Trailblazer is managed by JPL, and its science investigation and mission operations are led by Caltech with the mission operations center at IPAC. Managed for NASA by Caltech, JPL also provides system engineering, mission assurance, the HVM3 instrument, as well as mission design and navigation. Lockheed Martin Space provides the spacecraft, integrates the flight system, and supports operations under contract with Caltech.
SIMPLEx mission investigations are managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of the Discovery Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The program conducts space science investigations in the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
For more information about Lunar Trailblazer, visit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/lunar-trailblazer
News Media Contacts
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
Gordon Squires
IPAC, Pasadena, Calif.
626-395-3121
squires@ipac.caltech.edu
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Last Updated Oct 29, 2024 Related Terms
Lunar Trailblazer Earth's Moon Moons Planetary Science Planetary Science Division Science Mission Directorate Explore More
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