Who Are We?
Purdue Lunabotics is a student organization at Purdue University that has been designing, building and operating lunar robots to compete at the NASA Lunabotics Competition for over a decade.
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History
Purdue Lunabotics was founded in 2012 and has been making robots ever since.
In 2015 and 2016 we placed 2nd overall at the NASA Competition.
In 2023, We placed 3rd place in Autonomy and collected the 5th most gravel out of the 20+ teams competing.
In 2024, We placed 2nd in Presentation and Demonstration, 3rd in Systems Engineering, and 6th in Autonomy.
In 2025, We placed 1st in Autonomy, 5th in Systems Engineering, and 3rd at the University of Central Florida Qualifier.
Our Competition
We compete in the Annual NASA Lunabotics Competition which is one week long and is held at the NASA's Kennedy Space Center in mid-May. Since 2010, this competition has challenged university student teams to design and build a lunar mining or construction robot while applying system engineering principles.
Subteams
Drivetrain
Design the frame, drive base, and wheels of our robot.
Excavation
Design the system to collect lunar material from the arena.
Deposition
Design how our robot contains and deposits lunar material in the specified area.
Software
Enable our robot to traverse, excavate, and deposit autonomously.
Power & Hardware
Connect all other parts of the robot, using electrical components to make the robot a living thing.
Systems
Design and manage the robot as a system that integrates software, hardware, and processes.
Business Operations
Create promotional content, coordinates corporate outreach for sponsorships, and plans professional events.
Fabrication & Operations
Manufacture all robot parts and work with design teams to ensure all parts are manufacturable.
FAQ
Our team is mostly made up of Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace and Computer Engineering majors as well as Computer Science and Polytech majors. But all majors are welcome to join!!
We do not require any previous experience to join. If you have experience, that is great, you will be able to jump right in and start contributing immediately. If not, no worries we have training programs that will teach you everything you need to know!
We have 7 hours of general meetings each week. For new members especially you should be able to do the majority of your work during these meetings. In general the more you put in the more you are able to get out of Lunabotics!