A team of 22 University of Virginia students won the top prize at NASA’s 2026 Lunabotics Challenge after designing and building a robot intended to help future astronauts work and build on the moon.
The student-run Mechatronics and Robotics Society, or MARS, competed against teams from across the country in the annual event, which challenges college students to create robots capable of digging and transporting lunar soil.
This year’s challenge focused on mining for NASA’s Artemis missions, with qualifying rounds held at the University of Central Florida before finalists advanced to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Because the competition coincided with UVA Finals Weekend, five team members flew back to Charlottesville between the two rounds to attend the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s graduation ceremony before returning to Florida for the finals.
For Amith Polineni, the team’s president, the victory speaks for itself.
“This win is a reflection of what our team is truly capable of, and we hope it brings greater credibility and support to our program,” he said. “We are not done yet. We are hungry, we are driven, and we have some exciting things in the works.”
The team earned six total awards, including awards for construction, engineering and innovation.
During the final round, the UVA team overcame a major setback when a wheel detached from the robot. The team quickly adapted the machine to continue operating on three wheels.
“We came so prepared,” said Craig Kalkwarf, a Class of 2026 aerospace engineering and astronomy graduate and the team’s mechanical lead. “We had metal wheels ready to swap out. We had a plan.”
