With NASA’s international Human Exploration Rover Challenge fast approaching, Kealakehe High School’s student engineering team is making progress toward building a prototype for testing.

What You Need To Know

  • The students are the state’s sole representative in the prestigious 75-team competition, which takes place next April at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.
  • The challenge brings together student engineers from 20 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in a competition to see which team can best design and build a human-powered rover capable of navigating simulated extraterrestrial terrains
  • The Kealakehe team recently presented their rover design to a NASA panel as part of the pre-competition design review
  • Students are required to do 100% of the work

 

The students are the state’s sole representative in the prestigious 75-team competition, which takes place next April at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The challenge brings together student engineers from 20 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in a competition to see which team can best design and build a human-powered rover capable of navigating simulated extraterrestrial terrains. Competitors come from 38 high schools, 35 colleges and two middle schools.

“The inventiveness, the exploration, the curiosity — they have that and we’re in a place that obviously has a lot of connections to explorers,” said  Justin Brown, the school’s career and technical education and robotics coordinator. “You know, Ellison Onizuka to what happened with Hokulea  — exploring and understanding new frontiers is at the heart of the Big Island.”

The Kealakehe team recently presented their rover design to a NASA panel as part of the pre-competition design review.

“Being up there and presenting the slides, it really felt like a very proud moment because we were like, this is the work we’ve done and this is what we have to show for it, and we can’t wait to show you guys more,” said Kealakehe junior Ailani Cruz.

Students are required to do 100% of the work, including design, construction of the vehicle and task components (work that may be supported by a professional machinist for the purpose of training or safety), written reports, presentations and preparations for the competition.

Teams earn points by successful completion of design reviews, designing and assembling a rover that meets all challenge criteria, and successful completion of course obstacles and/or mission tasks. The team with the highest number of points accumulated throughout the project year will be the winner in their respective division.

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.