The NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge asks teams to design, build, and race rovers across a challenging exoplanetary-like track while completing various mission objective tasks.
Overview
Like the Artemis Mission, this challenge requires that each team sends one female and one male on each excursion. These two “rovernauts” must go across a half mile track including 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 of varying sizes. There are additional weight and time requirements that push students to design their rovers to be compact and lightweight. Similar to the Apollo 14 surface mission, teams have a virtual eight-minute supply of oxygen and must decide in real-time which mission objectives to attempt and which to leave behind. As described by NASA, this student design challenge encourages the next generation of scientists and engineers to aid in the design process by providing innovative designs and unique perspectives.
Cool Event Photos! Courtesy of NASA
2016 Winners: Purdue University Calumet
2019 Winners: University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez
Our Progress
The team has not built a rover yet, but here are some of the ideas we have brainstormed and general designs we are considering.
The Team
The team is divided into 3 sections: structure, wheels, and strategy.
Structure
The Structure section focuses on the general structure of the rover including the frame, seats, drivetrain, and possible folding mechanisms of the rover. As part of the competition, the rovers must fit into a theoretical lander equipment bay, a maximum of 5 feet long by 5 feet tall by 5 feet in volume, so the folding is an interesting challenge for this section.
Wheels
The Wheels section will design and build the rover’s wheels to be capable of traversing a wide variety of difficult terrain. This section will also have to build the wheels from scratch, as the rules of this challenge allow for very little commercial purchases for the wheels.
Strategy:
The Strategy team will create a plans detailing which challenges and objectives our rovernauts should attempt to maximize the points obtained during the 8 minute lap.
Challenge Scoring
How to Earn Points:
- assembling the rover in the allotted time
- designing a rover that is lightweight
- successfully completing course obstacles
- performing tasks throughout the mission
- 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.
Quick Video Overview
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