A group of Laurentian University students in Sudbury, Ont., are finalists in a competition organized by the Colorado School of Mines.

The Over the Dusty Moon challenge involved teams to design and build a "regolith transport solution for the moon." In other words, they want students to find a way to move moon rocks.

"Lunar regolith is an important feedstock for construction, mineral processing and other ISRU (in-situ resource utilization) activities," the university stated.

"To help us learn how to work with this difficult material in the harsh lunar environment, Colorado School of Mines and Lockheed Martin invite university teams from around the world to compete."

The idea caught the attention of Quade Howald, a member of the Laurentian Lunars and a fourth-year engineering student. His team includes eight mechanical engineering students in their final undergraduate education, including Alexander Mackenzie, Adam Farrow, Ethan Murphy, Goran Hinic, Kevan Sullivan, Kyle Wulle and Reid Ludgate.

"The most readily available material is lunar regolith. And some describe it to have the consistency of wet sand and regolith can be processed to produce oxygen and raw materials for 3D printing," he said. 

"So some of the issues surrounding regolith, excavation and short distance transportation have already been solved in previous competitions, which created a strong need for long distance, horizontal and short distance vertical, high volume transportation." 

Howald said the team designed a "portable screw conveyor."

"It's a series of short screw conveyors that can be wheeled into place and they feed into one another, followed by a vertical section that drops off the regolith for processing."

Howald said there many challenges in developing the equipment. To start, the temperature, as the moon, has an average temperature of about minus 150 degrees Celsius.

He said the reduced gravity is also a challenge.

"It's nearly a perfect vacuum, and this regolith is very, very dusty. So because there's no atmosphere on the moon, you never had the chance to erode," he said.

"So they're very sharp, jagged particles. They're like electrostatic charges, so they stick to everything. So we have to prevent dust from getting caught in components so everything has to be shielded." 

Six teams, including the Laurentian Lunars, have been named finalists in Phase 1 of the contest.

"We were ecstatic," he said. "It was such good news."

Howald said the group is working on small prototypes to test the machine, build it and then take it to Colorado.

"We have access to our shop at Laurentian and we also can have external manufacturers build some stuff for us," he said.

Howald said they're currently working on the project and looking for help in terms of sponsorship from local mining companies.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us, and we're really looking forward to making it happen."

With files from Markus Schwabe

To encourage thoughtful and respectful conversations, first and last names will appear with each submission to CBC/Radio-Canada's online communities (except in children and youth-oriented communities). Pseudonyms will no longer be permitted.

By submitting a comment, you accept that CBC has the right to reproduce and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner CBC chooses. Please note that CBC does not endorse the opinions expressed in comments. Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

Join the conversation  Create account

Audience Relations, CBC P.O. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6

Toll-free (Canada only): 1-866-306-4636

It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges.

Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem.