Odisha-based budding astronauts ready with Rover to represent India at NASA challenge 2021

A team of 10-students belonging to Cuttack’s Novonmesh Prasar Student Astronomy Team (NaPSAT) has designed a rover that will be shown at NASA Human Rover Exploration Challenge 2021. The group of students aged between 14 to 19 will be representing India at NASA’s exploration challenge. They had received their selection letter on November 6 last year.

According to the team, the rover has been designed for the Moon mission where the first woman and the next man will be sent.

“The rover has been designed for the Artemis Mission 2024 (Moon mission) where the first woman and next man will be sent to the Moon. The rover is efficient of flying on different kinds of martian terrains,” added a member of the NaPSAT team.

The member further added that the team has worked incredibly hard for eight months during the Covid-19 lockdown over the project. The rover has been build with the maximum effort of perfection and it has been named NaPSAT  1.0 (Navonmesh Prasar Student Astronomy Team). The project has been designed with the aim to bring India an award from NASA. However, the team would not be able to travel to Alabama due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

About NaPSAT

An initiative of the Bhubaneswar-based Navonmesh Prasar Foundation, this team is a brainchild of Engineers Anil Pradhan and Vaishali Sharma. The team is powered by Young Tinker and the foundation. With an aim to create curiosity among students from schools, skill development, and universities this institution is especially for those in the field of Space and Astronomy. The students describe themselves as an”interdisciplinary team of Space enthusiasts across disciplines, who are engaged in projects ranging from the design of space systems, rovers, rockets, satellites and astronomy to participate in various international events.”

The team has further taken various other initiatives from rural school development, innovative labs, and initiatives for the Covid-19 pandemic. The founder Anil Pradhan has been recognized with several awards including being a finalist in the event of The World Science Summit. They are also recognized by the Odisha Education Conclave, and with various other awards of excellence.

(Inputs from ANI)