The MoonBots Mindstorms Challenge for 2012 has been announced, and you can get your students ready for it as a great end of the year project. The challenge is to create an amazing Lego Mindstorms-based moon explorer robot,  and is open to all youth from ages 9-17 years of age.  As the future of space exploration in the US appears to be moving toward privatization, young would be space explorers can get a leg up on the upcoming skills needed to fill the inevitable jobs that result.  Unlike many other robotics competitions, the cost is zero-that right, nothing. The first phase of the contest will run from May 15-July 15 2012. Judges will vet out 30 winners from the phase  one entries and those teams will each receive a Lego Mindstorms robot kit for the second phase of the competition, from August 1-November 15, 2012. Competitions such as this epitomize STEM education as they bring together collaborative efforts and force the development of skills and drive innovation is a short amount of time.  So get those ideas and students together and take on the MoonBots Challenge!