A color guard brings the U.S. Flag and NASA flag forward during the opening ceremony for NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition.

At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, a color guard brings the U.S. Flag and NASA flag forward during the opening ceremony for NASA’s Lunabotics Mining Competition.

The mining competition is sponsored by NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Education Office for the agency’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. Undergraduate and graduate students from more than 50 universities and colleges in the U.S. and other countries use their remote-controlled Lunabots to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with a crushed material that has characteristics similar to lunar soil. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/lunabotics. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin