Mechanical
Design and build the robot from scratch—model in CAD, engineer mobility, and assemble every component.
Electrical
Design PCBs and controllers, power the robot, and optimize its systems and circuits.
Systems Engineering
Design and integrate the robot’s complex systems, making every component work together seamlessly.
Programming
Develop autonomous systems, work with Lidar and Rust, and test in our Utah RAPTOR Lunar Environment.
About us
What makes a National Champion Team?
Despite our national success, USR is made up of students from diverse majors who come together to design, build, program, organize, do outreach, and make lasting friendships. Working as a team, we become more than the sum of our parts. Every year, we create projects we’re proud of—from outreach and systems work to our NASA presentations—and, of course, an incredible Moon Rover.
What’s our Competition?
NASA Lunabotics – Lunar Construction
NASA’s Artemis Mission aims to return humans to the Moon and establish a permanent presence there, with sights set on Mars. While NASA develops its own solutions, they invite universities across the nation to tackle the same challenges and contribute innovative ideas.
Artemis?
The Artemis Mission will land the first woman and next man on the Moon, explore new regions like the lunar South Pole, and establish the foundation for sustainable lunar exploration to support future missions to Mars.
Lunar Construction?
Building a permanent presence on the Moon requires advanced construction, especially near launch sites. That’s where automated lunar construction rovers come in.
Why Universities?
While NASA develops its own solutions, they invite universities across the country to tackle the same challenges. NASA can incorporate our designs, and in Florida, we’re surrounded by engineers eager to see what we’ve built.
Why We Can Win!
Utah has a proud legacy in this competition, earning dozens of awards in Autonomy, Outreach, Systems, Construction—and of course the 2025 Grand Prize, the Artemis Award. Now it’s your turn to build something even better!
Why join USR?
There’s no requirements or qualifications. People join from every year, from freshman to seniors, even grad school. Most of us with little or no knowledge. Bring what you have, we’ll teach you the rest!
Make Friends
We regularly host social events, and often provide food; but more importantly working together is how we grow as a group. We have fun.
Be Inovlved
Some clubs exist only to sit & talk. We are not those clubs. We need people who want to think, innovate, design, and build the next generation of moon rover. In addition to the robot, we also conduct outreach with schools to get kids excited about stem!
The Competition
Every year our most involved members travel to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a week. We compete against schools from across the country. (Free trip anyone?)
Advisors
We work closely with faculty members from multiple departments, who provide knowledge, wisdom, and experience to our projects.
Workshops
Early in the year our subteam leads hold workshops to teach the necessary skills to eveyone who needs it. It’s a chance to learn CAD (Soldiworks, Onshape), Soldering, PCB’s, Programming Automation (Rust), and more!
Building the Robot
Are you a fan of being hands on? We manufacture, print, cut, and assemble each years robot from scratch.
