Got Ice? Funding Proposal

Got Ice?: Robot Design Funding Proposal

I bet you’re wondering why you should choose to fund the robot for our team, “Got Ice?” . The reason is we’re not only inquisitive (see our team name), but we seek and find answers to our questions. Other reasons are that we’re bright, we work well together, and our robot will be awesome.

We’ve already begun to explore whether or not water/ice exists on the moon. We’d like to build a robot that is capable of exploring deep, dark craters. We’d also like to work with our mentor, Blaze Sanders, and his team JURBAN, a Lunar X Prize team, who has already developed ideas to discover and research water/ice on the moon. We have common goals of developing an outreach program that helps the economically disadvantaged and to further research water on the moon.

We named our team name, “Got ice?” in honor of LCROSS. On Oct 9, 2009 the LCROSS mission spacecraft verified the existence of water on the Moon in a crater named Cabeus by the south pole of the Moon! Lcross crashed into a crater, Cabeus, which is 60 miles wide and 2 miles deep. It contained water because its bottom is a frigid negative 365 ºF, cold enough to trap water. The crash carved out a hole 60 to 100 feet wide. When the material which was displaced from the crash was analyzed it was discovered that water was present! The scientists detected the water by seeing the colors of ultraviolet light associated with water.

Water is an important resource on the Moon. If water exists on the Moon it may be possible for humans to exist on the moon. The finding of water on the Moon may greatly enhance future space exploration. If the Moon could be used as a base to explore further into space, we could learn a great deal more about places in space we cannot currently reach. The “Got Ice? Team” would like to contribute to the knowledge of water on the Moon by building a robot and by further exploring water in the giant crater Canvin and the smaller crater Chanda.
The sponsors should not only fund our robot because seek and find answers to questions, but we will design an awesome robot. Our team likes to make small chassis. This will be an advantage in the contest, because we will be able to maneuver the robot to access tiny spaces. We will make a design that is efficient, the robot arms will accomplish more than one task, and we will find water ice and Helium 3 during our Moonbot mission.

Okay we admit we have never participated in Moonbots before, but we still feel that we will be able to accomplish our goal of winning the Moonbots Challenge. We work well together as a team. We are bright and have many skills that will be useful in the contest such as robotics, math, science and engineering. As members of the G-Force First Lego League team, we placed first on the Body Forward Challenge. As members of the G-Force National Science bowl team, we placed first on the engineering challenge. We were also members of the Glenfield group that was one of five winners in the Cedar Point K’nex Great Thrill Ride Build Off. Our group designed a roller coaster that used K’nex pieces, 4 motors, and 2 pulley systems. It was shipped from to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio for Math and Science week and will remain on display there throughout the summer. To win, we had to build a working ride and explain how physics was applied to our roller coaster.

Brian Becker, Brian Cole, Chuckie Sutton, Asif Uddin , and Daniel Washington would be honored to be selected as a team to design a robot that can explore the moon in the Moonbots competition this summer.