05/29/2026
A team of 22 UVA students took home the top prize at NASA’s 2026 Lunabotics Challenge! 🏆🧡
The student-run Mechatronics and Robotics Society, or MARS, competed against teams from across the country in the annual event, which challenges college students to design and build robots intended to help future astronauts work and build on the moon.
This year’s challenge focused on mining for NASA’s Artemis missions, with qualifying rounds held at the University of Central Florida before finalists advanced to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Because the competition coincided with Finals Weekend, five team members flew back to Charlottesville between the two rounds to attend the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science’s graduation ceremony before returning to Florida for the finals.
During the final round, the UVA team overcame a major setback when a wheel detached from the robot. The team quickly adapted the machine to continue operating on three wheels.
“We came so prepared,” said Craig Kalkwarf, a Class of 2026 aerospace engineering and astronomy graduate and the team’s mechanical lead. “We had metal wheels ready to swap out. We had a plan.” https://uvatoday.me/4dCAfC6
