Cardinal Space Mining Club at Iowa State University

05/21/2026

This is the rock that destroyed our bucket ladder with 7 minutes left in our run. You can catch the epic destruction on the Day 3 link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyLjc4PaIlw&list=PLEhH5eFliz0OioYzTOSUOCY9As_VgVF4f&index=3
(It happens at approximately 6:25:00.)

05/21/2026

It was an eventful day with our final run and the awards ceremony.While we didn't win the grand prize or the construction award, the team is pleased with what they accomplished. While we don't know our final overall staning, we represented Iowa State University well. We did receive 5th place autonomy, the most efficient communications award, and a rock (no, really).

05/21/2026

The club had a challenging but good first run in the NASA Lunabotics Finals. We were the last team to run for round 1 which was a 30-minute mission. The arena had been quite worked up by the previous 9 teams which left some areas of the regolith very soft. Added to that was the team's driving strategy to maximize the load in the hopper and we came away with a good-sized berm but we struggled to get our rover to the berm area more than five times. Tomorrow we will be running in a 20-minute cycle to keep things moving on time and will again be the last team to run. Wish the team "Good Luck" and cheer them on. You can watch Wednesday's run at the "Day 2" link and today's run on the "Day 3" which is currently scheduled for 2:00PM Iowa time. Check early because with 20-minute runs we could start earlier.
Here is the link for Day 3 of the NASA Lunabotics Challenge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyLjc4PaIlw&list=PLEhH5eFliz0OioYzTOSUOCY9As_VgVF4f&index=3

05/21/2026

05/18/2026

We're in the top ten! We will be competing this week in the NASA Lunabotics Challenge representing Iowa State University. After careful review of the scoring the judges have informed us we will be running this week. The team is grateful and excited to be given this opportunity.

05/17/2026

We had an awesome second run. Whether it's enough to make top ten, we'll have to find out tonight. Nonetheless, we're proud of what this has accomplished, maintaining the Cyclone spirit to stay in the game to the very end.

05/17/2026

It's the final day of the UCF competition and the team has been working feverishly chasing electrical gremlins in our rover. We finally tracked the last one down in one of our new actuators. Fortunately, we had spares along that we could swap out. They're 12V instead of 24V so they're 20lbs weaker, but they should still have enough capacity to lift the hopper to unload. Our final run will be at 1:00PM EDT (12:00PM CDT). watch our run on the following link and cheer us on. Hopefully we will have a great run and can still qualify for the NASA portion of the competition.

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05/16/2026

Our first run wasn't what we had hoped it would be. Between a stalled motor that failed and a dislodged track, we essentially went nowhere and garnered little points (we dichpposed to be Saturday at 11:20AM EDT but we are checking with other schools to see if we can delay it to Sunday at 1:00PM. We will keep you posted....UPDATE: We will be switching with the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and will now have our second run on Sunday at 1:00PM EDT (12:00PM CDT). Thanks UNL! You're the best!

10/12/2025

Four of our members traveled with their advisor to the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK. They attended along with members of the Purdue University. We traveled at the request of Dr Mahesh Anand of the OU to present at the launch event for the 2026 UK Lunabotics Challenge. Caterpillar and NASA SSERVI were there in support of the event as well. Team members presented on team building and leadership, NASA systems engineering, and robot design and build. The presentations were well received by everyone attending. We want express our gratitude to our hosts for a wonderful trip and experience.