MURFREESBORO, Tenn. —
Two MTSU teams are setting their sights on potential high finishes at the
NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge 2017.
The event will be held Friday and Saturday, March 31-April
1, at NASA’s U.S. Space & Rocket Center course in Huntsville, Alabama.
The challenge will focus on designing,
constructing and testing technologies for mobility devices to perform in environments
in the solar system family — planets, moons, asteroids and comets — and it will
provide valuable experiences that engage students in the technologies and
concepts that will be needed in future exploration missions.
MTSU’s Experimental Vehicles Program lunar
rover entries are an annual top-10 finisher, having placed third in the world
and best in the U.S. twice in recent years.
Junior Brad Hobbs, senior Kelly Maynard and
graduate student Thomas Kinney are captains for MTSU Team 1, which has a new
aluminum body, wheels designed by Maynard for the second year and will utilize
a belt system instead of a metal chain. Drivers are seniors Braxton Harter and
Emma Gist.
“We’re confident we should be in at least the
top three,” said Hobbs, acknowledging strong international competition from
Russia, Germany, India and Puerto Rico, not to mention MTSU Team 2.
Captain Tony Cheatham, a junior mechatronics
engineering major from Knoxville, Tennessee, guides Team 2, whose rover is
nicknamed “The Beast.” Team members made the required 50 percent modifications
required since it is not a totally new entry. Drivers are Jason Baker and
Mathilde French.
“We were seventh in the world last year. With
modifications, we think we can do better than that,” said Cheatham, who
mentioned all the hours the volunteer team members spent preparing the rover.
Team 2 modifications include adding a camera
system, a modified wheel design and an adapted breaking and drivetrain system.
Rovers will be human-powered and carry two student
drivers, one male and one female, through the half-mile obstacle course of
simulated extraterrestrial terrain of craters, boulders, ridges, inclines,
crevasses and depressions.
As part of the challenge and before going onto
the course, unassembled entries must be carried by the drivers to the course
starting line with the unassembled components contained in a specific area. At
the starting line, the entries will be assembled, readied for racing and
evaluated for safety.
The top three winning high school and
college/university division teams will be those having the shortest total times
in assembling the rovers and negotiating the course. Each team is permitted two
runs on the course. The shortest course time (including penalties) will be
added to the assembly time for the final total event time.
Prizes will be awarded to the top three teams in both
divisions. Schools compete for 11 additional awards. MTSU teams have earned
various awards through the years.
Saeed Foroudastan, associate dean in the College of Basic
and Applied Science, is the teams’ adviser.
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