This week in Alabama, NASA will launch the 31st annual Rover Competition, which allows students from around the world to showcase their engineering skills in the space agency's obstacle course events.
On Friday, student teams will gather for the annual NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge near the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville to compete on the Aviation Challenge track at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, which runs through Saturday.
The free event, open to the public, is expected to attract about 35 colleges and universities, as well as 38 middle schools and two high schools from 20 states, including Puerto Rico and 16 other countries.
The event is free and open to the general public.
Hundreds of students from around the world will team up with their teams to complete what NASA calls a “challenging” obstacle course, driving a vehicle they designed and built in the traditional human-powered rover class, according to NASA.
This year the competition has been expanded to include a remote control section.
Rover tours will run from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. CDT each day or until the last rover completes the NASA obstacle course.
On Saturday at 5:30 p.m. local time, NASA officials will hold an awards ceremony at the Space Camp Operations Center at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center to present a slew of awards to winners of the project's eight-month design and construction competition.
NASA says the annual competition, begun in 1994 and administered by the Southeast Regional STEM Engagement Office in Marshall, “reflects the goals” of the Artemis campaign and is one of eight Artemis student competitions.
The main goal is to “align participants with NASA's Artemis campaign strategy,” which aims to establish the first long-term presence on the Moon and pave the way for future missions to Mars.
Last year, NASA's first mobile robotic lunar rover, developed with the help of commercial partners, was aimed at finding lunar ice that could be used to support long-term missions to the moon.
The teams present a design for a lunar rover that will simulate an astronaut exploring the lunar surface and overcoming various obstacles on another planet in space.
In 1996, the competition expanded to include high school teams, and in 2014, it was renamed the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge. It currently has more than 15,000 students participating.
Sourse: www.upi.com
