NASA to Host 2019 Rover Challenge; Veteran Astronaut Sunita Williams to Attend

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Apr 08, 2019, 16:38 ET

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Media are invited to watch as nearly 100 high school and college teams from across the globe compete Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 during the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Participating teams are from 24 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and a record number of international competitors from different countries, including Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Egypt, Germany, India, Mexico, Morocco and Peru.

The 2019 event is hosted annual by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. This year it celebrates both the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo Moon landing and 25 years of friendly competition among high school, college and university students to build and drive innovative, lightweight vehicles inspired by the original lunar rovers.

Teams will arrive in Huntsville on Thursday, April 11, for on-site registration, with the race taking place from April 12, with the competition from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT both April 12 and April 13. The event concludes with an awards ceremony in the ballroom of the Huntsville Marriott at the Space & Rocket Center beginning at 5 p.m.

NASA astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams will attend the event Saturday, where she will be part of the NASA TV broadcast in the morning and will talk with students during the day. She will be available to speak to the media as well.

A two-time NASA spaceflight veteran, Williams was a flight engineer during International Space Station Expedition 14/15 from December 2006 to June 2007 and again during Expedition 32/33 from July to November 2012. She spent a total of 322 days in space and now ranks sixth on the all-time U.S. endurance list and second all-time for a female astronaut. She is currently training for the first post-certification mission of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft – the second crewed flight for that vehicle – and her third International Space Station mission.

Media interested in attending or setting up interviews with racers and team advisors should contact Angela Storey in the Office of Communications at 256-544-0034 or [email protected] no later than 2 p.m. April 11.

The two-day event and awards ceremony will stream live online at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

Both days of the race also will stream live on the NASA Rover Challenge Facebook page and NASA Rover Twitter.

NASA redesigned the event in 2018 to better reflect modern planetary exploration challenges. New guidelines task students to design human-powered rovers -- each powered by two student drivers, one male, one female -- through a half-mile course featuring 14 daunting obstacles and five technical tasks, such as collecting samples, taking photos and planting a flag. With just six minutes of "virtual" oxygen per rover, teams must decide which tasks and hurdles to attempt before the clock expires.

Teams in the high school and college categories vie to be among the top three finishers in their divisions, and to win awards from NASA and corporate sponsors, including best vehicle design and best rookie team.

The competition, managed by Marshall's Office of STEM Engagement and sponsored by NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in Washington, is intended to inspire the next generation of STEM explorers skilled in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. The event was launched in 1994 as the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing and expanded in 1996 to include high school teams. It evolved again in 2014 into the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge. Since its inception, more than 12,000 students have participated. To learn more, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/roverchallenge/home/index.html

SOURCE NASA