Astrobotics at Virginia Tech

Astrobotics is a student-led robotics team that participates in the annual NASA Lunabotics Competition.

Close up of the Astrobotics team's vehicle.

What is Astrobotics?

Our team designs, constructs, and programs a semi-autonomous robot to compete in the NASA Lunabotics Competition. The point of the competition is to provide proof-of-concepts for NASA to use in their missions, so the team is heavily focused on creating the best robot to address each challenge. In the 2024–2025 academic year, they required robots to navigate a simulated lunar environment containing craters and boulders to collect simulated lunar regolith. The robot then uses that simulant to construct a regolith-based berm (pile of moon dust). NASA wants berms to protect man-made structures on the moon (i.e. cryogenic tank farms) from landing and launches as well as to shield nuclear power plants from radiation. Teams are scored on their robot’s competition performance, project management, outreach, a presentation and demonstration, and systems engineering.