NORWICH – The Chenango County FIRST TR-X 145 Robotics Team recently held their 2009 kick-off at the Norwich Senior High School. Through a live feed provided by NASA, originating from Manchester, N.H., at 10 a.m. on Saturday, the team learned of the new challenge for 2009 along with other teams nationwide.

The FIRST Robotics competition challenges teams of young people and their mentors to solve a problem in a six-week time frame and build a robot using a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules. In past years, the team has built remote controlled robots that have “played” a variety of different games. This year, the robot challenge is called “Lunacy.” The object of the game will be to build a robot that collects “moon rocks” and “super cells,” and shoots them into a “hopper” or “fuel cell” while moving on a low friction surface to score points. The game lasts two minutes and fifteen seconds.