Six students from India selected for NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge

Bhubaneswar: Six students from India have been selected to attend NASA’s space & rocket center in Huntsville, Alabama, where they will showcase a rover vehicle that they have designed for the global competition.

The team includes three from Odisha and two from Vijayawada and one from Mumbai. Basudeba Bhoi, Akankshya Dash, Om Padhi, Siddhanth Ghosh, Sai Akshara Vemuri, and Akarsh Chittineni are the six students.

They had sent a proposal to NASA in October last year which got selected. Aged between 14 and 18 years, the students are busy undergoing training, testing, and manufacturing their rover at Bhubaneswar under the guidance of Anil Pradhan. While

Every year NASA organises Rover’s challenge where participants from across the world are given the opportunity to showcase their creations. NASA is working on its Artemis mission for 2024 and 2028, and the competition is part of NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC).

This year NASA has selected 61 teams for the competition from 45 colleges and universities and 16 high schools from 30 countries around the world.

Founder of the Young Tinker Foundation and mentor of the team, Anil Pradhan said, “I am happy that my students have been selected to participate in the competition to be organised by NASA. They are working hard for the competitions. The designing of the rover has been completed in October and now the team is working on the manufacturing part.”

Anil’s student first participated in the competition in 2022 and won the third prize. He is hopeful this year his students would win the first prize.

The 2023 competition will be held from April 20 to 22.