Hosted from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA’s lunar mining competition is attended by colleges and universities from around the world. Each year students must design and construct a full sized mining robot which is used to simulate mining on the moon for Helium-3, a vital and rare resource used in nuclear fusion reactors. Students must compete against one another; whichever team can mine the most lunar sand with the most efficient design in the shortest period of time is declared winner. AIAA UW-Madison has competed in this event for the last 2 years and plans to do so again in 2018.