Artemis Arena
NASA Science ·
Team members/students from the University of North Florida watch their robotic miner dig in the mining arena NASA’s LUNABOTICS competition on May 27, 2022, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the […] The post Artemis Arena appeared first on NASA Science .
Team members/students from the University of North Florida watch their robotic miner dig in the mining arena NASA’s LUNABOTICS competition on May 27, 2022, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the mining competition. Teams used their autonomous or remote-controlled robots to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with lunar simulant and rocks. The objective of the challenge is to see which team’s robot can collect and deposit the most rocky regolith within a specified amount of time.
Overview
he Artemis Arena at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center offers a premier testbed for external customers seeking to validate systems in a simulated lunar mare environment. The arena is filled with Black Point-1 (BP-1) crushed basalt, a high-fidelity lunar regolith simulant representative of the Moon’s basaltic maria. Enclosed within internal dimensions of approximately 6.8 meters in length by 5.0 meters in width, the arena provides a substantial 45 cm depth of BP-1, with the option to include larger rocks and gravel (~2 cm diameter) to emulate natural heterogeneity.
Designed for rigorous testing, the arena features a dedicated Obstacle Zone, where teams can evaluate technologies for obstacle detection, terrain mapping, and autonomous navigation across a complex “slalom” route. The zone includes randomly placed boulder obstacles—each roughly 30 to 40 cm in diameter with variable height—and crater features of varying shape, no deeper or wider than 40 to 50 cm. A central structural column within the arena serves as a fixed infrastructure obstacle, further enhancing realism by simulating a persistent hazard that must be avoided.
This facility provides an ideal, controlled setting for robotics, mobility, excavation, and autonomy testing under Moon-like terrain conditions, and is open for use by industry, academia, and government teams preparing for lunar missions.
Specifications
ARTEMIS ARENA SPECIFICATIONS AND PROTOCOL
1. Artemis Arena Specifications
Here are some photos of the Artemis Arena and a layout sketch that we use for the annual NASA Lunabotics University Competition:
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Lunabotics Challenge Resources
University-level competition for teams to use the NASA systems engineering process to design, build, and operate a lunar robot.
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Kennedy Space Center Fact Sheets
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