The home team, Kapiolani Community College, proudly representing Hawaii at PRISM.
The very first PISCES Robotic International Space Mining competition, or PRISM, is now in the books after Day Two of the competition wrapped up late this afternoon. Judges are now tasked with tallying up all the scores from Phase 1 and Phase 2, and will announce the final results tomorrow (Friday, July 25th) at the awards ceremony and post-competition celebration, which will be held at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. We will announce the winners as soon as they are in. Until then, here is a wrap-up of the competition:
TEAMS (6)
- University of Alabama
- University of Alaska, Fairbanks
- Kapiolani Community College
- Iowa State University of Science & Technology
- University of New Hampshire
- West Virginia University
COMPETITION STRUCTURE
- PHASE 1: small mining arena, 10 minute-run, two rounds
- PHASE 2: large mining arena, 20 minute run, one round
AMOUNT OF REGOLITH (SOIL) COLLECTED***
PHASE 1, ROUND 1:
- UA 54 kg
- UAF 36.3 kg
- KCC 13.8 kg
- ISU 138.1 kg
- UNH 87.8 kg
- WVU 113 kg
PHASE 1, ROUND 2:
- UA 0 kg (got stuck)
- UAF 76.2 kg
- KCC 0 kg (got stuck)
- ISU 168.7 kg
- UNH 71.9 kg
- WVU 172.6 kg
PHASE 2
- UA 10.8 kg
- UAF 87.9 kg
- KCC 23.1 kg
- ISU 191.6 kg
- UNH 58.5 kg
- WVU 231.5 kg
***NOTE: These are unofficial loads and are not an accurate indicator of team scores. Penalties such as going out of bounds, collecting regolith outside of the mining arena or other infractions are not factored in these numbers.
COMPETITION DAY ONE PICTURES
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COMPETITION DAY TWO PICTURES
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PRISM TEAMS TREAT YOUNG MINDS TO EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT ROBOTS
PRISM teams took some time out after Day One of the competition to give visiting international high school students a glimpse of the future of space mining, by conducting a show-and-tell of their robots at Mauna Kea’s Hale Pohaku.
Teammates from Kapiolani Community College and the University of Alabama stood behind their bots, addressing a crowd of roughly 40 students from schools in Japan, China, India, Canada, and the U.S. (Hawaii). The students are visiting Hawaii for the second-annual PAES (Pacific Astronomy and Engineering Summit), a week-long intensive hosted by the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center that encourages youth to pursue STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) disciplines.
PRISM teams answered questions and encouraged the curious youngsters to apply and challenge what they learn in the classroom by participating in hands-on projects such as building and designing robots.
The PAES event, held this week (July 21-25) includes presentations by distinguished members of the astronomy and engineering fields, hands-on workshops, and field trips, including today’s trek to Mauna Kea to meet the PRISM bots and teams, as well as a night of stargazing at the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy.