The
NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge announced Tharsis —a team from Peru's
National University of Engineering (UNI)— as the winner of this year's Technology Challenge Award.
The Rover Challenge tasks student teams to design and test a human-powered rover on a course that simulates the terrain found on rocky bodies.
The teams must perform mission tasks while negotiating the course, including sample retrievals and spectrographic analysis.
"This year, we had 111 teams from 27 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and 11 other countries," said Julie Clift, program manager for the challenge at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
"The teams pushed the limits this year, designing and building truly innovative rovers to take on the challenging course," she added.
The awards were presented in eight categories, and the winners included universities from Mexico, the United States, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, in addition to Peru.
"Congratulations to the Tharsis team for raising the name of Peru!" the university wrote on Twitter.
In 2019, another team from UNI took first place in the AIAA Telemetry/Electronics Award category.
Innovative proposal
The multidisciplinary team came up with an innovative proposal for the rover wheels, based on the idea of using torsion springs to extend the running surface as well as to master the steep and stony terrain on the Moon and Mars.
(END) NDP/SPV/RMB/MVB
Publicado: 21/8/2020