ESA-ESRIC Space Resources Challenge

The Space Resources Challenge was a robotic competition organized by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) to foster innovative technologies for the exploration of resources on the Moon. As part of the challenge, teams of engineers had to develop robots and payloads capable of prospecting for resources in a test-bed simulating the Moon's shaded polar regions.

The Robotic Systems Lab led team “GLIMPSE” (A Geological Lunar In-Situ Mapper and Prospector For Surface Exploration) and successfully participated in the challenge. During the two field trials, we deployed “expert” ANYMal’s with various payloads to map and analyze various resources hidden on the terrain. Together with our research partners (University of Zurich, University of Bern and Hochschule Luzern) we tackled the “lunar” challenges associated to communication loss, challenging illumination, limited time and complicated terrain.

Together with the FZI (Forschungszentrum Informatik) in Germany, team GLIMPSE won the competition and entered the next phase of maturing the prospecting technologies showcased during the competition. The work will continue together with FZI in a joint ESA-ESRIC project called “ARISE” (Autonomous Robots for In-situ Surface Exploration).