final dispatch from the 2015 nasa rover challenge

Final Dispatch from the 2015 NASA Rover Challenge

Before the first race on day 1...AACT with some VIPs that included the Mayor of Huntsville, Alabama, and Donald James, NASA Administrator for Education (I don't think I got his title quite right).

It's difficult to explain just how extraordinary the AACT Rover Project is.  On a personal level, the fact that NASA has created an engineering competition that focuses on building a human powered vehicle that has to deal with some of the types of terrain a real Mars Rover might encounter is super cool from a design and fabrication standpoint.  On a professional level, the way our school has built it into not just an Engineering program, but a cross-curricular project that engages students in technical writing, medical and safety problem solving, social media and communication arts, and even business students creating sponsorship outreach is amazing.  If the problem NASA is presenting to us as a school isn't "Real World," the way our school approaches this project based challenge certainly is.

The team finished the second day of racing and held onto a 3rd place finish in the high school division competing against teams from around the world.  I'll get to how this all played out in such an amazing way a bit later.  We also walked away with the Systems Safety Award which is one more technical report that we created for the first time as a team of medical students from AACT's Medical Academy came together to address how we can make sure that riders and others who work with the rover stay safe.

With the team's Systems Safety Award...it was a pleasure helping to mentor these budding medical professionals.

After the first day's run on the course, and having the benefit of going first as defending champions, we knew we had set a good time but didn't know how long it would hold.  By the end of that day we still sat on top of the leader board for high schools but it was pretty clear that there were several teams that were close enough that unless we put together an improved time on the course the second day, we were not likely to hold the top spot through a second day of racing.




That improved time was not to be as we started the second day with an impressive climb over a new obstacle in the "Martian Landscape" section of the course that had a big hill but then our male driver's chain slipped off and there was no way to get it back on.  We incurred a penalty as our drivers had to push through that obstacle.  But then something rather amazing happened.



Rather than get out and push our Rover through the rest of the course, incurring penalties along the way, our riders remounted the vehicle, and with essentially half of our engine gone, our female rider, Maddie,  pushed through the rest of the course with Owen giving as much "wheelchair" help as he could as they hit obstacles.  And they still managed to beat the times of nearly 70% of the field down half of the horsepower they normally have.  I told Maddie that was one of the most inspiring things I'd ever seen when she crossed the line gasping for air.  It takes a lot of heart to do that.

To get a taste of what the remaining two thirds of the course was like for Maddie and Owen watch this video.  Extraordinary!



We left Huntsville with a podium spot, some more hardware to show for our efforts.  We are five years into this program at the Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology, and building a legacy as we look to future years of the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge!

On the Podium!

Packing up for home!