Team AA-Star wins Top 10 position in NASA's Break the ICE CHALLENGE

Team AA-Star, which was among the top 10 in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Break the Ice Challenge. The global level competition had teams from 48 countries and AA-Star was the only team from India to stand in the top 10, hence bagging a reward of $25,000.

Team AA-Star

Team AA-Star consists of an interdisciplinary collaboration with expertise in machine design, electro-mechanical and computer science combined with commercial experience. 

Team AA-Star Achievements:

• Won NASA’s Lunar Delivery Challenge (3rd position-2021)
• Secured  a spot in Top 20 for NASA’s Challenge ALLGO (An Advanced Lightweight Lunar gantry for Operations - 2020)

NASA's BREAK THE ICE CHALLENGE

As NASA prepares to go to the Moon with the Artemis program, in-situ resource utilization is paramount, and there is no hotter commodity than water. To that effect, 13 teams from across the United States have won a share of a $500,000 prize in a competition that asked for ideas for digging and hauling icy Moon “dirt” – or regolith.

NASA's Break the Ice Lunar Challenge opened in November 2020, incentivizing new approaches for excavating resources astronauts will need during long-duration missions on the Moon. Water, one of the most important resources, is trapped in icy regolith at the Moon’s poles, inside permanently dark and cold craters.

This is a part of NASA’s prestigious Centennial Challenge series. The Centennial Challenge series mainly focuses on NASA’s Back to Moon ‘Artemis Program 2024’. The theme of the project is to design a Lunar vehicle that can excavate and extract water from icy regolith on the lunar surface detected by Chandrayan-1 earlier in 2008 at the lunar South Pole. A total of 374 teams, from 48 countries, registered for the Break the Ice Lunar Challenge. The challenge started in November 2020 and ended in June 2021. This is Phase 1 of the competition. Phase 2, starting in November 2021, involves working on the development of a prototype.

TEAM AA-STAR's LUNAR WATER EXTRACTION SYSTEM

In order to keep up with NASA’s ambition to build an In-Situ Resource for Utilization (ISRU) system for life support systems, A robust and reliable framework L-WATER (Lunar – Water Abstraction and Transportation by Excavation of Regolith) is developed in order to keep up with the steady flow of icy-regolith for extracting water. The team has recognized that not only excavating and transporting icy-regolith is crucial but also water extraction has importance in order to keep up with the ISRU systems.

The L-WATER technology is designed to be compatible with both NASA's water extraction facility and our microwave extraction method. It is capable of delivering 367 kg/hr icy-regolith to the extraction plant. The onboard microwave module extracts water from icy-regolith at a rate of 34 litres/day eliminating the requirement for an extraction plant. The L-WATER system satisfies the mission requirement of 27 litres/day while also delivering icy-regolith to the extraction plant that can be processed if needed for additional water requirements. The team developed a two-stage plan to excavate and extract water from icy-regolith.

Youtube Link: Team AA - Star | L - WATER | NASA Break the Ice Challenge | Mission Animation

Team Details

• Pranav Prasad is working on his computer science degree and is a certified Machine Learning specialist  (Team Leader)

• Amareswara Prasad Chunduru has a degree in computer applications and expertise in electro-mechanical engineering and is passionate about non-linear dynamics, optimization techniques, machine design, and metaheuristics. 

• Sai Ashish Kumar Karanam has a master’s degree in machine design and expertise in Product Life cycle Management (PLM) and is passionate about Designing, Industrial Automation, Industrial Robotics and Internet of Things devices (IoT).

Contact Information: 

Email: teamamarashish@gmail.com
Ph no: 9949721832, 9494271845

Reference Links:

1.  https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-awards-500000-in-break-the-ice-lunar-challenge
2. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-announces-lunar-delivery-challenge-winners
3. https://breaktheicechallenge.com/nasa-awards-500000-in-phase-1-prizes-for-break-the-ice-lunar-challenge/
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5no3csO_IPM