NASA asks for the public’s help to design a robot for digging on the moon

If you’re a designer or engineer who’s stuck at home and bored, then NASA has a challenge for you. The agency has developed a robot for digging on the moon, called Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot or RASSOR, and it wants the public’s help in designing a part of it called the bucket drum. This part collects the soil, or regolith, from the surface of the moon and stores it securely. When the regolith has been transported to its destination, the bucket drum rotates to dump the material in the required location. Currently, the bucket drums are hollow cylinders, one at each end of RASSOR. They have scoops which pick up the regolith by pulling it toward the center of the robot,...