Robotics Competition
The lunar module has landed at the Naperville Robotics Competition, but it’s not the only machine that landed on this day.
mySTEMbuddy and NanoBeasts hosted the event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. The challenge is a way to get a new generation to join in the excitement of the country’s milestone.
“Maybe this current generation is not very excited when the person landed on the moon, on this day. But we are able to connect to the past generation. So we are reliving the excitement by having this challenge so that’s the most fun and exciting part for me,” said Gayadri Mistri, teach coach and sponsor.
The competition is part of a national NASA event known as the Apollo Next Giant Leap Student Challenge.
Drones and Robots
Five teams went head to head to present their drones and robots to the judges.
“It’s kind of fun working with a team and building technology. It’s a fun experience to be in an engineer’s position and what they do for a living,” said team member Noah Savala.
Through four rounds, team members had to put their astronaut helmets on to embark on their own journey.
The mission? Drop the lunar module in the center using a drone and program your robot for exploration.
“You carry something with the robot, you drop it at the pillar center and then you go forward, explore where you want to get your sample from and bring it back to the lunar module. So that lunar module will carry it back to the earth,” said organizer Kamlesh Suthar.
The Winners
The winning team, Astrobeasts, will be launching off to Maryland for a trip to a NASA field center – Goddard Space Flight Center.
And they are most definitely ready for take off.
Naperville News 17’s Aysha Ashley Househ reports.
