Hyderabad, India, 12th October 2017: A team of 5 Students of SR Engineering College, Warangal India have been selected for the prestigious 5th Annual NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge on April 12-14, 2018, in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A. The team qualified for the final challenge after overcoming the tough selection criteria – to prepare a moonbuggy design, report and submit their idea that make the buggy they designed work on the surface of moon ensuring the safety of its passengers.
Only 4 teams from India have been shortlisted to compete in the NASA’s annual Rover Challenge. Students from 23 countries are participating in this prestigious challenge which challenges students to create a vehicle designed to traverse the simulated surface of another world.
The 5 member student team will be led by faculty Mr. Manoj Chaudhary will comprise P. Paul Vineeth (Final year ECE) Prakash Raineni( FinalMech) P.Sravan Rao ( Final year ECE) , RondlaDilipreddy (Final Mech) and VenishettySneha ( Final Civil). These students along with students from other parts of the world will design and create rovers capable of traversing a challenging exoplanetary-like landscape
Sharing the excitement the SR Engineering College Students Team said “We are excited and looking forward to this challenge since it makes us think concepts in “space exploration” as a subject, which was something we had never considered before. Their space-themed obstacle course is daunting three-quarter-mile long course and we are confident our rover will conquer the challenge.”
Congratulating the students Secretary of SR Engineering College A. Madhukar Reddy said, “It’s a great opportunity to design, build, and test technologies that enable rovers to perform in a wide variety of environments. The Rover Challenge inspires participants to become the engineers to design NASA’s next-generation space systems.” I am very proud of my students he added.
Just as in the Apollo 14 surface mission teams will have to make real-time decisions about which mission objectives to attempt and which to leave behind — all driven by a limited, virtual six-minute supply of oxygen with a one-minute reserve. Instead of time penalties, teams will earn points as they progress through all stages of the competition. Returning the results of their mission tasks and finishing without using their “oxygen” reserve will earn additional rewards.
The planned course for the competition will require two students, one female and one male, to traverse a terrain of 0.50 miles that includes a simulated field of asteroid debris — boulders from 5 to 15 inches across; an ancient stream bed with pebbles approximately 6 inches deep; and erosion ruts and crevasses of varying widths and depths. The challenge’s weight and time requirements encourage compactness, light weight, high performance and efficiency.
As part of the competition — before their first time on the course — rover entries are tested to see that they would fit into a lander equipment bay, a maximum 5 feet by 5 feet by 5 feet in volume. Teams earn points by assembling the rover in the allotted time; designing a rover that is lightweight; successfully completing course obstacles; performing tasks throughout the mission; and meeting pre- and post-challenge requirements. Each team is permitted two excursions: The greater score of the two excursions will be used for the final team score.
The NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge began as the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race and was first held in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1994, 25 years after the first manned Apollo landing on the moon. The NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge now focuses on NASA’s current plans to explore planets, moons, asteroids, and comets.
The challenge focuses on designing, constructing, and testing technologies for mobility devices to perform in these different environments, and provides valuable experiences that engage students in the technologies and concepts that will be needed in future exploration missions.
During its 20-year run, the Great Moonbuggy Race engaged more than 10,000 students and demonstrated that these budding scientists and engineers were capable of complex work. Inspired by the lunar roving vehicles of the Apollo moon missions; the competition challenges students to solve engineering problems.