NASA HUMAN EXPLORATION ROVER CHALLENGE
NASA has many stem opportunities and activities for students. Multiple challenges reaching a broad audience of middle and high schools, colleges, and universities across the nation. Check out all the ones on the link below. And check out the Artemus challenge team that my son started during COVID distance learning. We all need to learn to make our own opportunities! If our family can do it so can yours! Find a project that personally interests your kid and get started!
They started designing on the computer. Having fun and learning skills that they are all taking into their lives and future careers.
​
The NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) is a nine month design, engineer, and build challenge which engages students in hands-on learning correlated to NASA’s Artemis missions.
It was all based out of a little 2 car garage. A completely young rookie team taking on teams double the size with many years of competition experience. We had absolutely no clue how to even start this type of project, but we just printed the instruction manual, and tried to figure it out step by step. If they can tackle it so can you! You just have to jump in with both feet and get started!
The team ranged from 9th graders to just one senior. But they all learned not only academic skills but they ALL learned to weld, machine parts, and general shop skills! In fact many kids said learning to weld was one of the highlights. Hands on learning, skills they can have forever!
These kids are going to be the best future engineers, with not just book facts but the knowledge of real building skills. Trial and error, some failure lead to learning and new solutions.
A challenge is the perfect way to get kids to think outside the box and actually problem solve.
So what! No one in our group knows about carbon fiber, with all of our technology today we have the power to learn about absolutely anything that we want, just a click away. Also we found out that many companies and professionals are happy to give advice to students that are actually trying real life engineering projects. Businesses realize that challenges like this make the future engineers better.
There were many, many rules and specifications that they had to follow. And keeping to a schedule and being on time, such a great skill.
There was so many rules, two forty page technical reports, and almost every day for nine months sometimes up to 14 hours a day, But...
learned to work together with a team, had a Lot of fun, and proved to everyone that kids can do amazing things.
The NASA judges said it would be a life changing project and it was, one student told the judges "I will never be afraid to try anything new ever again!"
They presented live at the
MN Science Museum for the Summer of Space!
Eighty-six teams — representing 22 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and seven other countries — competed in the event. In addition to placing second in the high school division, the Stillwater team won the challenge’s Ingenuity Award.
The competition required two students, one female and one male, to traverse a challenging half-mile course. The students had to show that the rover had a turning radius of 15 feet and could go up 5-foot-tall hills and a 30-degree incline. The rover also had to be able to be disassembled so that it would be small enough to “fit into a lander equipment bay, a maximum 5 feet long by 5 feet tall by 5 feet in volume,” according to NASA.