Break the Ice
Lunar Challenge
Phase 2

A: The Break the Ice Lunar Challenge is a public competition that seeks to incentivize innovative approaches for excavating icy regolith and delivering acquired resources in extreme lunar environmental conditions. The Challenge seeks to incentivize solutions for maximizing resource delivery while minimizing energy use and the mass of equipment delivered to the lunar surface.

A: NASA is conducting this challenge through Centennial Challenges Program. The program offers incentive prizes to generate revolutionary solutions to problems of interest to NASA and the nation. The program seeks innovations from diverse and non-traditional sources. Competitors are not supported by government funding and awards are only made to successful teams when the challenges are met.

A: Ensemble is a contractor that provides challenge operations services. NASA has contracted with Ensemble to support the administration and promotion of this Challenge.

A: Here is the competition calendar

A: All interested U.S. and International teams must first register through the Challenge website https://breaktheicechallenge.com/ by September 30, 2022 (11:59 PM Eastern). Specific instructions for registration can be viewed on the challenge website.

Once a team has submitted their registration and supporting documents, the Challenge Administrators will review the registration and notify the team leader of acceptance to compete. NOTE: A team is not officially registered as a competitor until the team leader receives an official confirmation email from the Challenge Administrators stating that the registration documents have been accepted.

A: Thanks for registering. Please look out for an email from the Challenge Administrators accepting the registration or asking for missing or additional documentation.

A: Please visit the Challenge website often to view the latest updates and review the FAQ page on a regular basis to see the latest questions and answers. You can also sign up for updates on the home page.

A: A Panel of expert judges will review the submissions and discuss, evaluate, and rank the entries. The Judging Panel has discretion in the assessment and scoring of submissions and in recommending the winners. NASA will review the recommendations from the Judging Panel, validate the recommendations, and announce winners for awards.

A. Phase 2 will offer a total prize purse of up to $3 million for the U.S. Teams.

Level 1: All teams that submit compliant deliverables by the deadline and are eligible to win the prizes will be awarded an equal share of the $500,000 prize purse up to a maximum of $75,000 per team. All teams that submit compliant deliverables by the deadline will move to Level 2, regardless of whether they earn prize money.

Level 2: Below table provides prize purse distribution for Level 2 for the U.S. teams. In order to be eligible to receive a prize, a team must score a minimum of 40 points in Level 2. All prizes will be determined based on teams’ overall scores.

Up to 15 teams (including the winners and runners up) that score above the minimum score will be invited to compete in Level 3.

Level 3: Level 3 will offer up to $1.5M in cash prizes split between the 1st place ($1M) and 2nd place ($0.5M). In addition to the cash prizes, NASA will also award opportunities to test concepts in a dusty Thermal Vacuum Chamber that will simulate the temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions at the lunar south pole. Detailed Prize Purse Distribution and scoring requirements to be eligible to receive the prize will be provided at a later date and will be available on the challenge website.

Recognition for International teams

Up to 3 top scoring International teams will be recognized as winners in Level 2 and Level 3. Teams must score a minimum of 40 points to be recognized as winners in Level 2. Criteria to be considered a winner in Level 3 will be provided at a later date on the challenge website. International teams must meet the eligibility requirements to participate in the Challenge and be recognized as winners. International teams are not eligible to be awarded prize money or TVAC testing opportunities.

A: (1) Eligible teams can win prizes. (2) All participating teams get certificates. (3) Teams get opportunities to interact with NASA and industry SMEs through webinars. (4) Names of the teams that complete the registration will be listed on the challenge website. (5) Names of the winning teams will be included in the NASA press release and social media announcements.

A: Neither NASA nor Ensemble claim any intellectual property (IP) rights from the teams’ submissions. All trade secrets, copyrights, patent rights, and software rights will remain with each respective team.

A: Please direct all questions to admin@breaktheicechallenge.com and a member of our support team will respond as quickly as possible.

Questions sent to any other email address or individual will not be addressed.

A: All questions related to participating and/or competing in the Challenge should be sent to admin@breaktheicechallenge.com

Questions sent to any other email address or individual will not be addressed.

Media inquires should be directed to:

Molly Porter – molly.a.porter@nasa.gov

NASA

+1 256-544-2771

Adam Karides – akarides@ensembleconsultancy.com

Ensemble

+1 202-495-1639

A: Webinar details will be posted on the challenge website well in advance of the webinar. If you missed a webinar, recordings will be available on the challenge website within 48 hours of the webinar: https://breaktheicechallenge.com/resources-media/

A: Break the Ice Lunar Challenge is open to individuals and teams from around the globe, with some restrictions. All interested teams should refer to the Rules for specific eligibility requirements to compete and/or win a prize.

A: Competitors cannot be affiliated with a Chinese entity. An entity includes a Chinese company, university, government entity, research institute, etc. So competitors cannot work for the Chinese government or a Chinese company or be students at a Chinese university or school.

A: Yes, a green card holder is considered a permanent resident, and can participate in the challenge and be eligible to win a prize from NASA.

A: Please refer to the Rules document for the detailed eligibility criteria.

Team may include foreign nationals and be eligible to win prize money as long as the foreign national signs and delivers a disclosure (separate form) wherein he/she discloses his/her citizenship and acknowledge that he/she is not eligible to win a prize from NASA, AND

1. The foreign national is an employee of an otherwise eligible U.S. entity participating in the Challenge,
2. The foreign national is an owner of such entity, so long as foreign citizens own less than 50% of the interests in the entity,
3. The foreign national is a contractor under written contract to such entity, OR
4. The foreign national is a full-time student, during the time of the Challenge, of an otherwise eligible entity which is an accredited institution of higher learning, AND the student is during the Challenge in the United States on a valid student visa and is otherwise in compliance with all local, state, and federal laws and regulations regarding the sale and export of technology.

A: Anyone can register to participate in the competition as long as they meet the eligibility requirements as stated on the Challenge website

A: New team members may be added to the team after the initial registration period ends. Team members previously registered for the challenge on one team may not switch teams during the same phase of the competition. The existing team leader is accountable for any decision to make changes to the team roster, including bringing on new team members and/or releasing registered team members. New team members must meet the eligibility requirements and submit all required paperwork and supporting documents as stated on the Challenge website.

A: Challenge rules don’t have any restrictions on the number of teams an individual is part of. It is up to the individual and the teams to decide.

A: We have no expectations on the size of a team. A team can be anywhere from a single individual to a large group. The size of the team is not taken into account in the judging process.

A: Challenge rules don’t prohibit an organization from sponsoring/having more than one team. It is up to an organization on how many teams they want to sponsor.

A: Individuals under 18 are not eligible to compete to win a prize from NASA. BUT that doesn’t mean that you can’t participate in furthering NASA’s missions, or contributing to technology advancements for Earth applications. Click on the links below to explore how you can be a part of some of the many exciting Student Challenges:

https://www.nasa.gov/solve/index.html

https://www.nasa.gov/stem

A: The U.S. Government requires all individuals and entities involved in challenges of this type to have adequate insurance coverage. Competitors are obligated to abide by existing U.S. Government guidelines.

A: Teams are free to submit whatever they feel will demonstrate the required insurance coverage and the document will be reviewed for compliance with the rules.

A: Please refer to the Eligibility section in the Rules document. NASA contractors may enter the competition, or be members of prize-eligible teams, so long as they are not within the scope of their contract, and they rely on no facilities, access, personnel, knowledge or other resources that are available to them as a result of their employment except for those resources available to all other participants on an equal basis.

A: We are unable to provide such a list. It is a team’s responsibility to understand the eligibility requirements.

A: Submitting Phase 1 deliverables is not a requirement to compete in Phase 2. However, we encourage teams to think about system architecture and how their excavator & transportation system fits within that architecture.

A: No. All Level 2 winners and runners up will be invited to compete in Level 3. In addition, NASA may choose to invite other Level 2 participants to compete in Level 3 based on their performance in Level 2. Names of all the teams that will be invited to compete in Level 3 will be announced during Level 2 winners announcement.

A: If you are a past grantee of the SBIR program, you may apply. If you are a current grantee, please note that no U.S. government funds may be used to prepare your submission.

A: We plan to publish the list of teams on the website after the registration deadline.

A: The Challenge rules and any accompanying FAQs supersede anything said at a webinar or by any other individual in a public or private forum.

A: Teams may not receive input from NASA/Federal SMEs unless all teams are given such access on an equitable basis.  Such access is not provided as part of this challenge.

A: There is no specific TRL required to submit. Teams can provide an estimated current TRL for their submission and a description that supports the assessment.

A:  Link to the live video stream must be provided on the test start date to admin@breaktheicechallenge.com

A: Notify Centennial Challenges of anticipated start date of durability demonstration a minimum of 28 days in advance of anticipated start date. Any changes to the start date of the test after sending this notification must be immediately communicated with a justification for the change. All notifications must be sent to admin@breaktheicechallenge.com

A: We understand that an onsite visit may not be possible in certain cases. Team needs to provide proper justification in these cases and work with Ensemble to find an alternative way to show their testing to judges.

A: Below are two additional sources of information. Please note that these are just examples and they may not be complete and there may be other sources available.

Lunar Sourcebook: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/lunar_sourcebook/

NASA Lunar Regolith Simulant User’s Guide – https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/nasa_tm_2010_216446_simuserg.pdf

A: There is no official NASA lunar simulant database. Interested teams can visit this external database: https://simulantdb.com/

A: It is recommended that you use the International System of Units (SI) or the multiples and submultiples of SI units in your reports. For example, Mass (kg), Distance (m or km), Temperature (K), Energy (J or kJ or MJ or kWh), etc.

A: The latitude/longitude numbers given in the Phase 1 rules are approximate locations provided to direct the reader to the location of each site. Figures 1 to 4 show the exact locations of all the areas. It is possible that the latitude/longitude provided in the Phase 1 rules are anywhere within tens to hundreds of meters away from the center of each area.

A: Teams should use their own experience and judgment regarding designing their equipment for dust. Teams may refer to information contained in NASA-STD-1008, Classifications and Requirements for Testing Systems and Hardware to be Exposed to Dust in Planetary Environments and the DSNE (Design Specification for Natural Environment), although this NASA standards document should not be considered by teams as a list of requirements to be met for this Challenge.

https://standards.nasa.gov/standard/nasa/nasa-std-1008

A: Since lunar lighting is not a technology gap focus of this Challenge, teams are not required to simulate lunar lighting conditions and their prototype systems are not required to depend on onboard light sources.

A: No. 10% water content icy regolith simulant will not be considered or used during Phase 2.

A: No.

A: Teams may recall that the Mission Scenario discussed in Phase 1 of this Challenge involved working for 365 Earth days to deliver 10,000 kg of clean processed water to the landing site. If we assume that 4% water content icy-regolith was used throughout that mission, it would take a total of 250,000 kg of raw icy-regolith as input to the Water Extraction Plant in order to make 10,000 kg worth of output water. So 12,000 kgs of raw icy-regolith is approximately a 15-day snapshot out of that 365-day overall mission minus some assumed equipment setup time.

A: The Durability Demonstration Test continues until one of the following end scenarios occurs:

• End Scenario 1: 15 full, 24-hour long, earth days elapse before the team excavates and delivers the target 12,000 kg of simulated regolith or
• End Scenario 2: The team excavates and delivers the target 12,000 kg of simulated regolith before 15 full, 24-hour long, earth days elapse or
• End Scenario 3: Required equipment breaks down beyond the repair capabilities of the planned and included landed mass before 15 full, 24-hour long, earth days elapse and/or before the team excavates and delivers the target 12,000 kg of simulated regolith

A: No. Teams must adhere to the given page limits. Any information contained in the excess pages beyond the given page limit will not be read or evaluated.

A: If a team has a question about the acceptability of a specific terrestrial component, they should send the question to admin@breaktheicechallenge.com to receive official guidance (please allow two weeks for this process).  Note that the overall acceptability of the complete robot(s) will be judged as part of Level 1.

A: Since GPS-denied localization and navigation is a challenging engineering problem which many groups and organizations are actively working to solve, Challenge Rules do not prohibit the use of that technology during Phase 2 Level 2 where Teams will demonstrate long term excavation and transportation operations at a test site of their own choosing. Teams who choose to use GPS must explain the technology they would notionally use on the surface of the Moon in their Detailed Design Report Level 1 deliverable. Teams who choose to use GPS must use a non-GPS means of aligning their robot with the icy-regolith collection bin used to dump excavated and hauled icy-regolith simulant. Please note that it is unlikely that satellite GPS signals will be received strongly by the robots competing inside the NASA provided arena which will be utilized during Phase 2 Level 3 of this Challenge.

A: Rules don’t specify a minimum depth.

A: Once the 15 day durability test begins no pause in executing a Teams Durability Demonstration Test is allowed. Section 3.2.4 of the Rules requires the test plan to target operations for 15 full 24 hour days under ambient conditions.

A: Rules don’t require continuous operations.

A: Teams are encouraged to dry run their systems as many times as they want. However, Teams must submit results from the testing which was observed by the judges.

A: Per the rules, “Excavation” is defined as the use of a tool or tools to remove in-situ material from a predetermined location.

A: Section 3.2.5 of the Rules recommends the use of testing procedures described in ASTM C39 but Teams may validate compressive strength using other means as long as they justify those means.

A: The entire simulated deposit, including the buffer zone should be placed within 8 hours.

A: If the scale and bin for weighing the regolith is not part of the system architecture i.e. it does not assist in unloading the regolith, then its mass and energy are not included in the total budget for these parameters.

A: Teams that receive this opportunity will work with the TVAC staff in determining the testing logistics and whether they want to test the level 2/3 prototype or an improvised version of that prototype (or a sub-system).

A: Yes, it is permissible for the teams to protect the demonstration area from rain and other weather phenomena to maintain the expected dry regolith conditions.

A: Weighing the delivered material indirectly and using calculation is an acceptable solution.

A: Mobile app technology for viewing live streams is allowed, however, live viewing by our judging and evaluation team via a web browser on their personal computers is required.

A: If there is inadvertent loss of streaming service during the durability demonstrations test then reestablish the link and inform the Challenge Administration at admin@breaktheicechallenge.com.

Section 3.2.2 of the Rules provides a timeline for Phase 2. September 15, 2023 is the deadline to start long duration testing. Teams that do not start testing by September 15th will not be judged and are not eligible for cash prize awards. The Rules identify three artifacts which will indicate the start of long duration testing

1) Section 3.2.8 requires Teams to notify the Challenge organizers 28 days prior to their start date,

2) Section 3.2.5 requires Teams to have a certified test report of their simulated icy regolith documenting an unconfined compressive strength of from 1.5 MPa to 2.0 MPa and,

3) Section 3.2.9.1 requires Teams to provide the Challenge organizers (email to admin@breaktheicechallenge.com) with a link to their live video stream at the start of testing. When these three artifacts are available a Team is considered to have started their 15 day durability demonstration.

A: Rules section 3.2.9.2, Level 2 Deliverables, states that teams must describe in their Level 2 Durability Demonstration Test Report any changes to the prototype robot design that was submitted in Level 1.  The rules do not designate a cutoff date for robot changes, which means changes are allowed to occur even during the 15-day Durability Demonstration Test, with the following caveats.  All changes must be documented in the team’s Level 2 Durability Demonstration Test Report deliverable.  The empty mass of the robot must be reported in the Durability Demonstration Test Report any time that mass changed during the 15-day Durability Demonstration Test.  And any modifications to the robot during the 15-day Durability Demonstration Test can only utilize spare parts, spare materials, tools and equipment that were identified, set aside, and weighed before the 15-day Durability Demonstration Test began.

A: Teams that do not start testing by September 15th will not be judged and are not eligible for cash prize awards.  Therefore, it is possible for a team to start their test on September 15th with a compressive strength that is less than the required strength.  In that case the Challenge staff will apply an appropriate penalty to that team’s final Level 2 score.

A: As stated in the Rules, the Challenge seeks to incentivize solutions for maximizing resource delivery while minimizing energy use and the mass of equipment delivered to the lunar surface. Although the final scoring rubrics are still being developed, the total mass of the robotic system (excluding tools and spares) delivered to the lunar surface will be considered.

A: That is correct. For Level 3, the excavated material will not be transferred from the excavation robot to the transportation robot. Additionally, material to be hauled in the Transportation Event will be made available to all Teams at the starting line along with the time necessary to manually load up their robot with this material prior to the start of their 60 minute competition run.

A: During the Level 3 Event, Challenge Staff and Judges will not require access to any live data stream from any competing robot. All the information and data the Challenge Staff needs for judging will be collected independently of each Team’s command and control system. Teams do not need to provide any live camera feeds to Challenge Staff during Level 3 event.

A:  Throughout the entire 60-minute Excavation Event, Team members are not allowed to interact physically with the robot and are required to remain outside of a marked safety zone surrounding the simulated icy-regolith excavation slab. Throughout the entire 60-minute Transportation Event, Team members are not allowed to interact physically with the robot and are required to remain outside of a marked safety zone surrounding the Transportation Competition course.

A: Teams must provide their own logistics and transportation services in order to get their robots and equipment to and from the Level 3 Event.

A: During Level 3, the Excavation Event will be fully indoors, and the simulated icy-regolith slabs will be dry. The Transportation Event will be outdoors. However, the material that will be hauled during that event will have been stored under controlled conditions and will be dry.

A: Section 3.2.2 (page 6) of the Phase 2 Rules states that “In Level 3, Teams will bring the prototype systems(s) they built and tested in Level 2 to a designated test facility to compete against other teams.”  However, Teams are encouraged, but not required, to improve their Level 2 robots, especially based on lessons learned in their durability demonstration.  Any modification to robots will be judged to determine if they impact their ability to support the hypothetical lunar ISRU mission as required in Section 3.1.1 of the Rules.

Challenge Administrators will require all Teams to submit a log of hardware changes along with justification of the modified system’s ability to support the above mission architecture.

A: Level 3 competition is scheduled to take place June 10 – 12, 2024 at Alabama A&M University’s Agribition Center located in Huntsville AL. Teams will be dry running their prototype excavation and transportation systems on June 10 and will be competing for the prizes on June 11 & 12.

A: The path between the pit area and the excavation event will be made up of packed dirt, as this space is normally used for rodeo events. The path between the pit area and the transportation event will be made up of packed gravel, as this space is normally used as a parking lot.

A: The total mass of the system, excluding tools and spare parts, that is delivered to the lunar surface will be used for scoring both Level 3 events.  This means that your excavation robot’s empty mass will be included in your system mass and used for scoring.  It also means that your transportation robot’s empty mass will be included in your system mass and used for scoring, unless it is the exact same physical robot that was already captured in the previous mass value.  It also means that the mass of your elevated dumping platform or any other external element needed for remote dumping of onboard icy-regolith simulant material in your architecture will also be included in your system mass and used for scoring. Lifting and rigging hardware, command and control equipment, tools, and spare parts are not considered part of the system mass.

A: Please refer to the “gravity off-load for the excavation event” portion of the Information for Teams document. This provides information known at this time regarding the lifting device and capabilities, as well as expectations on hardware teams must provide to support this portion of the competition. Further details on the gravity off-load system are forthcoming and should be available in April 2024 once the system is developed and has undergone initial testing.  The April 2024 date is based on the current schedule and is subject to change; the challenge administrative team will update competitors if a schedule slip occurs.

A: As stated in the Level 3 Information For Teams document, a maximum of five team members will be allowed into the Transportation Event area to support their Transportation Event. This same five team member limit will also be used for the Transportation Dry Run as it is essentially the same as the Transportation Event

A: The Transportation Event’s delivery area will be a large flat section of track that is designated for dumping of your onboard hauled material.  Teams are not required to offload their delivered material onto a facility scale nor into any sort of hopper since this delivered material will not be weighed for scoring at this point in the event.  Challenge Staff will weigh the material being hauled before the Transportation Event starts.  Therefore, dumping your hauled and delivered material directly onto the ground within the Transportation Event’s delivery area is perfectly acceptable. 

A:Each Team can only use one single robot in their Excavation Event and each Team can only use one single robot in their Transportation Event.  The robots used in those two events can be two different robots or they can be the same single robot.  Teams whose architectures contain multiple robots that work simultaneously or multiple robots that operate in sequence must prove that all robots are in working order during Robot Inspections, even though only one robot is allowed to compete in each Break The Ice Finals event.  So in this case, there is flexibility in the rules and it is up to the team to decide by Break The Ice Finals Robot Inspections whether to use one of their robots for both events or whether to use two different robots.