NASA

LUNABOTICS

Howdy! We are TAMU Lunabotics, a student team run by TAMU SEDS in collaboration with Aggies Create - designing, building, and testing lunar construction robots for the annual NASA Lunabotics competition. Our mission is to develop the next generation of engineers by providing an intensive, hands-on experience centered around extraterrestrial robotics and NASA systems engineering principles, all while contributing to a sustainable human presence on the Moon.

When this team was founded in September 2024, we had to start from scratch, with zero prior funding or experience. And yet, in our first year, we were able to raise over $12k, produce a working robot, and submit our NASA deliverables all on schedule. Out of 68 initial applicants, we were one of 35 teams who made it to the on-site competition in Florida, where we managed to come back from a disappointing first run to place 21st overall. We were also recognized as winners of the Nova Award for Stellar Systems Engineering by a First Year Team, and were one of only 11 teams to successfully operate their robot autonomously.

OUR SPONSORS

Thank you so much for your generous support of this team!

THE TEAM

For this 2025-2026 competition cycle, the team will be composed of roughly 38 students and is divided into 6 subteams:

- Electrical: Responsible for all of the circuitry in the robot and supplying sufficient power to all electronics, including motors, sensors, and the onboard computer.

- Mechanical: Responsible for the robot's drivetrain and excavation subsystems.

- Structural: Responsible for chassis design, dust tolerance, and creating a modular design.

- Command and Data Handling (CDH): Manages the onboard computer, data processing, sensors, and communication between subsystems to ensure smooth operation and autonomy.

- Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC): Responsible for motion planning, localization, and controlling the drive system so the robot can autonomously navigate, dig, and dump regolith accurately.

- Business: Responsible for managing the budget, fundraising, team outreach, and planning socials. Business subteam members also have the option to shadow a technical subteam if they wish, providing the option for less experienced students to learn robotics skills in order to join a technical subteam in the next competition cycle. Note: Shadows are expected to prioritize business subteam work, and will be given technical work based on their performance.

2024-2025 TEAM

Members

Mechanical - Paul Wiltz, Kira Schultz, Rohail Parmar, Kadin Patel, Aaron Edwards, Joseph Woodfall

Electrical - Jonathan Ruiz, Anushka Kalkar, Leonardo Ornelas, Sebastian Guillen, Jacob Hou

Software - Rylee Hunt, Damian Ambriz, Sebastian Chu, Luke Vizzini, Param Patel, Andrew Zheng

Business - Emily DeGraaff, Usman Siddiqui, Sidharth Kammili, Analucia Vargas, Jaime Gutierrez, Antonio Gordon

Faculty Advisors

Dr. Manoranjan Majji - Professor, Aerospace Engineering

Dr. Naveen Thomas - Instructional Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

JOIN US

Applications are currently closed for TAMU Lunabotics. Please check back next semester!.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Subteam Member - Preferably, has experience and interest in the subteam's specialty areas. No experience is necessary for the business subteam, so we encourage more inexperienced applicants to start there.

Subteam Lead - Must have experience and interest in the subteam's specialty areas. Preferably, has experience with systems engineering and leading teams.

Project Manager - Must have experience with systems engineering, project management, and leadership. Preferably, has expertise in all of the relevant aspects of robotics.

TIME COMMITMENT

We are holding weekly meetings for:

Full Team (2 hours)
Each Subteam (1-2 hours)
Systems Engineering Group (1-2 hours) - Only for Project Manager, Chief Engineer, and Subteam Leads

Taking into account work to be done outside of meetings, we estimate an average weekly time commitment of 5-10 hours. However, this is a flexible number and can be adjusted according to individual / team needs. And of course, as they say, you get out of it what you put into it!

SPONSOR US

If you are interested in supporting TAMU Lunabotics, we would love to hear from you! As a first year team, we do not have any existing funding sources, and will need all the help we can get in order to successfully execute our project. Simply reach out to tamu.seds.cstat@gmail.com and we would be happy to discuss further!