Four teams competed in NASA's Regolith Excavation Challenge this week for a chance to win a prize of $250K. The four teams all attempted unsuccessfully to build a robot that was able to dig 330lbs of regolith in under 30 minutes. Technology Ranch of Pismo Beach did the best with 143 lbs collected in the 30 minute time frame. All other machines broke down before the 30 minutes expired.

Regolith is the "loose heterogeneous material covering solid rock". On the moon this layer of material can be several meters thick.

Peter Homer won the $200,000 prize for developing a new glove design for NASA. Mr Homer had several years of engineering experience in the aerospace field before entering the competition. His new glove design featured an improved the finger dexterity and joint design. The prize money was awarded for a glove design that was both better than the current NASA design and also better than the other competitors. In this competition, the Astronaut Glove Challenge, there were two other entrants. The Astronaut Glove Challenge was part of a larger series of competitions that is under the banner of the 'Centennial Challenges' program from NASA which awards teams pursuing certain improvements in technology.