Jackrabbit in the Spotlight / A memorable 2 years for Noah Richardson

Noah Richardson celebrates a rover weigh-in of 19 pounds, earning bonus points for coming in under 20 pounds at the 2026 Human Exploration Rover Challenge in Huntsville, Alabama, April 10.

Noah Richardson didn’t need to be told twice.

Associate Professor Todd Letcher told the freshmen gathered at a camp before the start of classes at South Dakota State University in 2024 that freshmen and sophomores should get involved in some of the NASA contests that the mechanical engineering faculty member has overseen for senior capstone projects.

“I showed up to the next meeting, the next Thursday, and haven’t missed a meeting since,” said Richardson, who had all-star freshman and sophomore years.

In a span of 12 months, the 2024 Omaha North High School graduate has participated in the finals of three NASA competitions — the 2025 RASC-AL competition in June, when SDSU’s entry was awarded best prototype; the Human Exploration Rover Challenge in April 2026, when he captained SDSU’s entry to a second-place finish; and Gateways to Blue Skies in May 2026. 

While part of that is being at the right place at the right time, it’s also a testament to rolling up your sleeves and going to work.

Richardson said, “Competing in two NASA competitions (in the same school year) has been a challenge. It's not something that everyone should try, and you need to be very good at managing your time for school, work and both projects, which took be a bit longer than I'd like to admit to figure out. But it was also very fun being able to work on two completely different projects. 

“I was able to learn a lot and I'm very stoked that I was able to make it to the finals of both projects, and it’s thanks to both teams for being so flexible and supportive of my decision to do both projects, which is what really made it possible after learning how to manage my time better.”

From rover building to rover creating

In the Human Exploration Rover Challenge, Richardson directed a squad of four other sophomores and a freshman. The team was tasked with building a remote-controlled rover and then navigating it on a half-mile obstacle course in less than 12 minutes at the U S. Space and Rocket Center near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The rover, which the team dubbed TERRA (Targeted Environmental Retrieval & Research Assistant), was 18 inches long, 18 inches wide and 12 inches high.

The theme for Gateways to Blue Skies was “RepAir | Advancing Aircraft Maintenance,” encouraging teams to conceptualize novel aviation maintenance advancements that can be implemented by 2035 or sooner with the goal of improving efficiency, safety and/or costs for the industry.

Three of the eight national finalists were SDSU teams. Richardson was part of SPARK (Surface Preservation and Rust Killer Crawler), another young team with four sophomores and a freshman.

They devised a suction cup-based crawling robot that attaches to the exterior of the aircraft to perform close-up inspections and minor corrosion repairs. The system includes a camera, a robotic arm with a grinder and aerosol spray systems to treat corrosion when it is detected. It would operate in tandem with an observation drone.

Letcher said Richardson’s willingness to take on both challenges while taking a full course in mechanical engineering reflects his “his “dedication to learning and challenging himself. Noah is always ready to take on the next big challenge.”

RASC-AL: A brand-new adventure

Richardson said that while each NASA project was challenging, they’ve also been fun.

At the 2025 RASC-AL (Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concept-Academic Linkage) contest, two SDSU entries were selected in the small lunar servicing and maintenance robot division. One group was seniors completing a capstone project. Richardson’s group included two juniors and seven freshmen.

The competition is held at Cocoa Beach, Florida, not far from Kennedy Space Center.

While his high school robotics team had competed at Vex World finals in Texas, competing at RASC-AL with a group of nearly 20 from SDSU and staying at a beachfront hotel was a new and fun experience, Richardson said.

Rebuilding rover added stress

The Human Exploration Rover Challenge “was also fun, but a little bit more stressful.” For one thing, he was the captain. For another, the team didn’t just have to give a presentation, it had to operate the rover through the course. 

Getting TERRA race ready in Huntsville was another challenge.

It was disassembled to fly down to Alabama. “In the 36 hours before the contest, we had to rebuild the thing in our hotel, and then we had to troubleshoot some of the things caused by taking it apart. It took two hours to rebuild, and troubleshooting took the entire next day,” Richardson said.

There were loose wires and two wires had gotten flipped. “Another issue was our controller wasn’t connecting to our Pi. But it mysteriously started connecting again on its own,” he added.

Blue Skies “was a lot of fun” because they had a weekend in Washington, D.C., before the competition started Monday in Hampton, Virginia. The judges spoke highly of all the SDSU entries, there was a beachfront hotel in Virginia Beach after the competition, and because an SDSU entry took first place, the dean footed the bill for supper.

Future plans? NASA or Swampworks

All in all, quite a start to his collegiate career.

“It’s been very enjoyable. If I had to restart, I would choose the same path.”

His summer path is working at AeroFly, a startup company that Letcher is part owner of. Its employees include other SDSU mechanical engineering majors and graduates. Richardson works as a CAD intern, creating digital models of electrical substations for a power supplier that doesn’t have digital models for some of its substations.

When classes resume in August, he is certain he will scan the NASA contests and then choose the one whose theme best fits his interests.

Richardson’s choice after his May 2028 graduation will be an accelerated master’s degree in mechanical engineering at SDSU. 

Beyond that? “I wouldn’t mind working for NASA or Swampworks, which makes a lunar rover at Kennedy Space Center.”