Michigan Tech students have a long history of shooting for the moon—and some Huskies get very close. This May, Multiplanetary INovation Enterprise’s (MINE) Astro-Huskies team placed fourth in the 16th annual NASA Lunabotics Challenge. Developed to highlight NASA’s systems engineering principles, the annual challenge tasks student organizations from universities around the country to design, build, and test a prototype off-world construction robot.
Student groups spend a full academic year working on their prototype while meeting technical milestones and submitting materials to NASA ahead of the qualifying rounds at the University of Central Florida. The top ten teams from qualifying rounds go on to compete in the finals at the NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.