ESA Opens Student Space Robotics Competition
Video: ESA
The European Space Agency opened up its second ever space robotics competition for students ages 11 to 19 in any of ESA’s member states.
The goal of the competition, which will involve ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen’s 10-day trip to the International Space Station in September, is to design a robot that can quickly move cargo from one end of a space station mockup to the other.
The first competition in 2013 required students to design a robot that could unload cargo as fast as possible from a mockup of ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle.
The competition will conclude in December this year, but letters of intent must be submitted by 6 Feb. Students will then be required to submit a video that will form part of the preliminary design review.
Design review documentation must be submitted by 22 May so the projects can be rated, and in September, while Andreas is on the space station, student teams will have the chance to participate in live WebEx interviews with ESA robotics experts.
The finals will take place over two days in December at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands. Andreas will be there to talk to students, answer questions about his time in space, and present prizes to the winners.
