Indian students win NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge

Washington, May 4

Two Indian student groups have won the NASA 2022 Human Exploration Rover Challenge to recognise a new generation of potential space explorers.

Announced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration during a virtual awards ceremony on April 29, the challenge involved as many as 91 teams, including 58 colleges and 33 high schools.

Decent Children Model Presidency School from Punjab was the winner of the STEM Engagement Award in the High School division. The team from Vellore Institute of Technology in Tamil Nadu was declared the winner in the College/University division in the Social Media Award, a media release said.

The challenge required US and international student teams to design, engineer and test a human-powered rover on a course simulating terrain found on rocky bodies in the Solar System. The teams performed mission assignments, including sample retrievals and spectrographic analysis, while negotiating the course.

High school and college teams competed in multiple categories for design, documentation and presentation, including the safety and project review award.

“This year, students were asked to design a course that would mimic obstacles as if they were competing in Huntsville,” Aundra Brooks-Davenport, activity lead for the challenge at Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama, said.

The challenge is managed by NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement.