Indian students script history! Bag 3rd position in NASA Rover Challenge

New Delhi, April 17: And they finally made India proud on the global platform! Craving their name in the golden words team of 10 school students from Odisha scripted the history today. The team of Navonmesh Prasar Student Astronomy Team bags third prize in the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge-2021 in the high school division and becomes the first Indian team to do so.

 

 

The winners were announced during a virtual awards ceremony on April 16. The Human Exploration Rover Challenge was conducted in a virtual mode in which the Indian team from Odisha won the third prize whereas two teams of the USA won the first and second prize respectively. Apart from that Indian team also won the Videography Award in the competition. They are the first under 19 teams to achieve this. They were also the first Indian school team to be selected for the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge.

 

 

 

The young talents were from 42 Mouza in the Cuttack district of Odisha. They got selected in the Rover challenge amidst the coronavirus pandemic in November 2020.

 

 

 

They had built a human-powered rover to explore the surface of the Moon and Mars. The rover has been build with the maximum effort of perfection and it has been named NaPSAT 1.0 (Navonmesh Prasar Student Astronomy Team). According to the member of NaPSAT the rover has been designed for the Artemis Mission 2024 (Moon mission) where the first woman and next man will be sent to Moon. The rover is also capable of traveling on different kinds of martian terrains.

 

 

Reacting to the news, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday lauded a team saying Congratulate @NaPSATIndia on winning laurels for #Odisha by securing the third position in @NASA @RoverChallenge. This stellar achievement puts the institute on the global map and will inspire more budding scientists & innovators. Best wishes for the future.”

 

 

 

NaPSAT is an initiative of the Bhubaneswar-based Navonmesh Prasar Foundation. The team comprised space enthusiasts who were engaged in projects like the design of space systems, rovers, rockets, and satellites for the event.

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