Playa Vista, CA (May 15, 2012) – The X PRIZE Foundation and the LEGO Group today announced MoonBots 2012: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge. This third annual contest will challenge teams of youth to study the history of heritage artifacts left on the Moon, while also getting an opportunity to learn about the new and exciting things that private industry and government are doing in the arena of space exploration, including the $30 million dollar Google Lunar X PRIZE.    

Announcing the opening of registration for the moonbts 2012 competition. The opening of the moonbts 2012 competition. Announcing the opening of registration for the moonbts 2012 competition. The opening of the moonbts 2012 competition. Announcing the opening of registration for the moonbts 2012 competition. The opening of the moonbts 2012 competition. Announcing th

MOONBOTS 2012 content announcement coming soon!

Check back soon for details.

MoonBots 2.0   A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge

1st Place- LegoAces

2nd Place- Team Just Ducky

3rd Place- Lunar Lords

A WHOLE LOT! As our teams prepare for their live final lunar science mission rounds, they have also been very busy over the last month working with kids from all over the world.  We are extremely impressed with all of the great Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) outreach projects focused around the topic of MoonBots. We love to hear that this Google Lunar X PRIZE MINDSTORMS Challenge is reaching kids in so many fantastic ways!  Here are some great examples of what teams have been up to.
 

After an exhaustive search and some difficult decisions, the finalists in the MoonBots 2.0 competition have been selected. The twenty teams hail from a pool of fourteen countries and two dozen states and represent a group that is as diverse in their backgrounds as they are in their geography.

Our finalists will soon begin the next phase of their competition, designing and building a robot to accomplish a series of space related goals. In the mean time, let's congratulate our finalists. To see a complete list of teams moving on, visit the teams page. Thanks to all teams who entered and good luck to the lucky twenty who will compete in the final phase. 

Additional information coming soon.

One year after the first successful MoonBots mission, we return with new robots and challenges to another former landing site of missions long past. We learned a lot from our missions last year, but this year is a little bit different.

In an effort to economize on our rocket payloads, robots must fit in a tighter space. A new requirement has been issued to restrict the size of robot accessories to no more than the length of the robot body before being deployed.

We are still after Water Ice and Helium 3 this year, but they are located in harder to reach places and smaller quantities.

The new surface area to explore (although smaller in scope) isn't as easily navigable.

The primary target will be the GIANT crater - Canvin, and it's smaller sibling - Chanda. Entry will be treacherous, but the wealth of water ice to discover will be worth the effort.

Energy will be an issue, so you won't have much time and you will need to survive the harsh conditions of a lunar night.

We know you can do it and are proud to be part of this international endeavor. Good luck roboteers. MoonBots 2.0 is a go.

REGISTER YOUR TEAM TODAY.

-= MoonBots Mission Control - Out =-

We have had a lot of interest from fans about the MoonBots Challenge and we are receiving some very good questions about the competition. We thought we would take some time to address these questions because if one person has the question, we are pretty sure that a few other fans have the exact same question.
 
Does every team participate in both phases of the competition? Or are only the top teams invited to participate in Phase Two?

Every team competes in Phase One of the Challenge. From there, 20 Teams will be selected to compete in Phase Two of the Challenge.
 
What exactly is required in Phase One of the Challenge?

The first thing that is required is for Teams to register on the MoonBots website. Each Team Member and Team Captain is required to complete and send