Odisha’s NaPSAT to represent India in NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge 2021

Bhubaneswar, 13, Nov (Our Representative)- A student astronomy team from Odisha known as the Navonmesh Prasar Student Astronomy Team (NaPSAT) has been selected to participate in the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge that will be held next year in April 2021. The group of 10 school students who are aged between 14 to 19 will be flying to Huntsville, Alabama in the US to represent India in the international competition staged by the American space agency, as per the team’s official website. The group is working on building a “human-powered” rover that will be able to move on the surface of Mars.

NAPSAT is an initiative of Bhubaneswar-based Navonmesh Prasar Foundation that houses space enthusiasts and aims to create curiosity among school, skill development and university students in the field of Space and Astronomy. The selected 10 members have been shortlisted from about 800 willing participants and the team works on various projects like design of space systems, rovers, rockets, satellites and astronomy to participate in various international events. Anil Pradhan said that they created a team during COVID-19 time and identified 10 students from Odisha. They provided them with training and later applied for NASA Rover Challenge. Anil revealed that the interdisciplinary team has school students as well as ITI students, adding that the team is making a rover which can move on the surface of Mars and would be human-powered. He added that NASA had sent them an invitation for the 2021 event and they will be sending their rover over to the US soon. In order to meet all the expenses involved, the foundation is also raising funds. A team member Ankan Mondal elaborated upon the technicalities of the Mars rover. He said that their rover will be able to handle the weight of two persons and will be capable of moving on the terrain of Mars as well as the Moon.