RASC-AL program staff will respond to questions presented by eligible student and faculty from accredited colleges and universities in the United States
Questions should be sent to rascal@nianet.org
A Q&A Session will be held on October 20th, 2020 from 4 - 5 PM EST for teams who submitted a Notice of Intent. The deadline to submit questions is October 11th, 2020 by 11:59 PM EST.
A Q&A Session was hosted on October 20, 2020.
You can view files from that session below. Answers to the questions received on-call can be found on the Q&A Summary Document.
The RASC-AL Special Edition: Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge is open to undergraduate and graduate students majoring in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics and related disciplines at an accredited U.S.-based college or university. Teams may include senior capstone courses, robotics clubs, multi-university teams, multi-disciplinary teams, etc. Undergraduate and graduate students may work in collaboration together on the same team.
Foreign universities are not eligible to participate in the Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge. However, foreign students who are attending a U.S.-based university are eligible to participate with their team. However, please note that due to prohibitive restrictions and ever-changing NASA security regulations, foreign nationals will not be able to attend the Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge Forum on-site at NASA. There will be no exceptions to this policy.
The Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge is intentionally designed to allow for a lot of flexibility at the university level. Through this challenge, faculty can be involved as little or as much as they would like. Some serve as mentors as needed, and others actively join in the design-and-build process.
The main minimal responsibility for all of our advisors is to guide the teams as a mentor.
For teams awarded as finalists, their faculty advisors will further be responsible for ensuring that their team gets adequate access to the university resources and labs they need to successfully complete their project as proposed. Additionally, they’ll be responsible for managing the funds sent to the university on behalf of the challenge, and traveling with the team to the final culminating Forum.
Yes, multiple teams from the same university can submit separate proposals for the Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge, and multiple teams from the same university may move on to the next round of the competition if their project plans merit selection into the program.
Yes, absolutely. We understand that sometimes things change between the time abstracts were submitted and the time the written report is due. We just ask that you list every person who contributed to your project in the final report.
Yes, industry collaboration is certainly acceptable - and encouraged! The RASC-AL competitions are unique university competitions, because they focus on garnering real ideas and concepts that can be incorporated into NASA future mission planning. Teams that perform well are often ones that have true support of their faculty advisors and collaborations with industry.
We understand that NOI’s are due early in the development process and teams will still be in the process of fleshing out many of the details of their concepts. We fully expect that teams’ concepts will change and evolve between the NOI and Proposal submissions, as in-depth research and analysis is conducted. Teams have the flexibility to change ideas as they work over the course of the semester, and the idea submitted in the NOI does not need to match the proposal submission.
NOIs are non-binding. If a team submits an NOI and then later decides not to participate in the competition, no further action is required.
A cover page is not required in the mid-project report. If a team chooses to include one, it does not count against the 5-page limit.
Teams do not need to have a transparent wall for the excavation demonstration. Showing the system drilling through overburden and noting that the testbed contains ice at the bottom is sufficient. The purpose of the MPR is to show judges that the team is already working on drilling capabilities through some of the potential overburden materials.
The mid-project report is intended to be brief. Teams should attempt to include all necessary information within the five-page report limit. If absolutely necessary, teams may use an appendix for tables/graphs. Be aware that judges are not obligated to review anything beyond the five-page limit, including an appendix (which could ultimately affect evaluations).
Each team will receive a monetary award to facilitate full participation in the Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge onsite competition.
One Faculty Advisor is required to attend the Forum with each team, and is a condition for acceptance into the Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge. Advisors can provide guidance and insight into the team's decisions, as well as acting as a primary contact point between the RASC-AL coordinators and the universities.
Teams who do not have a faculty advisor present at the Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge onsite competition will be disqualified from competing and participation awards will be subject to return to NIA.
No, it will be conducted at 1 atmosphere.
It's a 22 qt. (20 L) bucket.
The physical system you build and bring to the competition does not. However, in your paper, you must describe the changes and accommodations that would need to be made such that your system could be used in the Martian or Lunar environment.
The power limitation applies to the full drilling system, with the exception of the independent remote crew controlled computer (if used). Likewise, batteries are not allowed for any part of the system.
It does not include captions.
There are no specific constraints or rules for the integration video, other than we want to see a fully integrated dry run. Please be reasonable with length of video and use only what you need to showcase the integration.
Yes, you may have multiple drills within the system, but the total mass and volume of the entire system must meet the stated design constraints.
The power restrictions apply to the entire drill system, including the heating and filtration subsystems
The weight on bit pertains to the entire downward force of all components operating in the ice hole. The total maximum downward force simultaneously exerted (sum of all the parts pressing down) on the test bed is limited to 150N.
So, for instance, if you use the rotor to move the dirt, and it operates alone, it can exert 150N. A cutting tool that then works alone to drill into the ice could also exert 150N. However, if these two devices were ever operating simultaneously, then the total combined force would be limited to 150N, and each tool would be limited to exerting less than 150N individually.
Our intent was to have a height limit of 2m above the lid, for safety reasons.
We will take measurements of your drill while it is sitting on the floor, before it is mounted to the test stand. Your drill system should be set up to allow us to measure the maximum potential dimensions (i.e., the drill bit will need to be raised to the maximum height that it would reach during the competition) - which should not exceed 2 meters tall.
Yes. Volume measurements are conducted prior to mounting devices to the testbed. The total height of the system must be less than 2 meters. Once mounted, no part of the system can be in contact with the testbed prior to the start of the competition (ie. a drill tip may not be already touching/breaking through the top overburden layer).
You don't need to include receipts for how you've spent your stipends for the mid point review. However, you will be asked to include a budget recognizing sponsors, grants, and estimated dollar amounts in your final technical paper.
This is fine so long as there is a guard/safe-proof that will keep the drill from going through the cooler. No more than 38 inches of the drill may enter the cooler.
Ultimately, we want you to stick to the Design Constraints requirement that says your power cannot exceed 10 amps.
If you do go above, you'll receive the stated penalty - but we also want you to understand that going above the 10 amps puts your team (and your fellow competitors and other workers in the hangar) at a large risk. Overloading the system by exceeding 10 amps has the serious potential to trip the breakers in the hangar.
An occasional minor deviation that dips above 10 amps will likely not be a major issue. However, it is not acceptable to try to pull 20 amps for a while and then 1 amp for a while to "fix" your average.
Teams may manually move/reposition their drills between subsequent “hands-off” operations without penalty. However, if a team plans to use manual repositioning, careful consideration should be taken in the path-to-flight section of their Project Plan Proposal to articulate how this would translate into operations off-Earth.
Teams have been instructed to design and construct a system with a 9 A fast blow fuse, the make/model/exact performance of which was up to the teams. NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace are officially revising/updating that design constraint to specify that the performance of the 9 A fast blow fuse should be equivalent or better than Bussman Series AGC. This is an industry standard fast acting glass fuse that will maintain minimum performance but still allow teams to choose a fuse that can protect what you need to protect as well. The link provided is a manufacturer's data sheet that contains the performance information we require teams to meet or exceed.
The 80 point penalty would be applied every time a fuse is blown. Teams will be sharing electrical sources, so if one team blows a fuse, it impacts another team’s ability to succeed. That is why there is a heavy penalty associated with blowing a fuse. Additionally, an overcurrent event on Mars could contribute directly to a mission failure / loss of equipment.
You would not need to drill into a new separate hole, but because you are touching the system to install the new assembly, this would be considered a hands-ON run and any water collected would be scored as such. You would be able to use the same hole.
Anything not readily replicable in an Earth-based test bed, e.g., gravity, pressure, and temperature. Constraints you choose to ignore are trade decisions your team has to make and decide for yourselves. Make sure you acknowledge and justify any design trades, and include a discussion on what changes you would need to make to the system to make it capable of operating on the moon/Mars in your Path-to-Flight section.
It is the responsibility of each team to appropriately handle copyright issues related to anything you choose to use in your presentation (including, but not limited to: music, images, graphics, and photos). Neither NASA nor NIA can grant permission for you to use copyrighted material.
A Digital Core is a written description that represents the team’s knowledge and understanding of where each of the layers are, the general hardness of each different layer, and the thickness of each layer. Finalist teams will use the Digital Core Form provided on-site to record the following information:
- The number of layers in their test station
- A sequence of the layers in order from softest to hardest
- The thickness of each layer
The digital core should result from information garnered using system telemetry and not via placing a ruler down the hole. Teams may not touch the layers to determine hardness.
The university must fill out the W9, as we are only able to issue stipend checks directly to universities (not to individual student organizations).
However, if you are selected as a finalist, we can mail the check to any specific mailing address at the university, including a student club address (eg. SEDS).
There is a section on the bottom of the online proposal submission form that allows you to enter in a specific mailing address of your choosing, to ensure the stipend check reaches the correct point of contact that can deposit the stipend into the correct university account.
Registration costs will be finalized once we know the new dates and can confirm event costs. The registration fee covers most meals during the Forum, and is typically ~$300 per person. Meals are primarily catered right to the NASA Langley Research Center hangar so teams can keep working and just grab food on-the-go. A hotel room block will be available at the government rate for teams, so plan on ~$100 per night (per room) for lodging. Each team will also need transportation to and from the hotel and NASA Langley Research Center, so plan on costs for a rental car for the week (plan to rent a car big enough that it can transport your team and prototype to NASA safely).