… SDSU advances in NASA contest as one of six finalists NASA has narrowed the field to six in its lunar soil excavating contest, and a team of students from South Dakota State University is among the group left in the hunt for a $1 million top prize. Conceived in 2020, the Break the Ice Lunar … were two earlier design and prototype phases in which SDSU advanced. In the latest stage, SDSU was one of 15 finalists invited to give their prototypes a 15-day test. Nine entities completed the 15-day durability testing, attempting to have their equipment excavate up to 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) of soil daily for 15 consecutive days and then document their … added, “This achievement really says a lot about the tenacity of our students and the excellent opportunities available at SDSU.” He expects the head-to-head finals to be held in May 2024 in a NASA-designated facility in the South. NASA hasn’t released specifics. Reduced-gravity conditions for finals Mark Hilburger, a senior research engineer at NASA’s Langley …
… SDSU team tabbed as NASA contest finalist What goes up must come down. That is the interesting dilemma for a group of South Dakota State University engineering students whose project has been selected as one of six finalists in a NASA … a 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) data recovery vault from a large balloon 120,000 feet in the stratosphere and safely steering that 3- by 4-inch box back to a designated landing spot undamaged. That’s what NASA is asking of the SDSU team and five other schools from around the nation. The National Institute of Aerospace, which manages the contest for NASA, said the … Adam Forman said. Two-stage navigation system planned Forman said Project Jack Drop is using a two-stage system. “Initially, we will use a drag chute (a smaller version of a standard parachute), and then at 60,000 feet we will switch to a parafoil, which will use autonomous guidance.” A parafoil is similar to a parachute except it behaves in flight more like an …
… SDSU engineering students win national NASA contest South Dakota State University engineering students used down-to-earth knowledge to design an out-of-this-world lunar transport vehicle … which won them a NASA-sponsored contest. The SDSU team was one of 15 teams selected as a finalist in NASA’S Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition. Finalists were grouped in four categories. SDSU was one of four universities chosen as finalists in the Lunar Surface Transporter Vehicle category along with Maryland, … screw and actuator. Letcher looks forward to next year “In addition, our prototype can be remotely controlled, just like the real ANTS system.” While the students have gone their separate ways, the prototype is being shipped back to campus and Letcher has plans to display it in the lobby of the Chicoine Architecture, Mathematics and Engineering Hall with the two …
… to: Establishment of the concrete industry management program. Awards of excellence to faculty members by their peers. Growth in scholarships. Endowing the dean’s position. Student competition success at the national level. Advancing all three NASA student projects to the finals in 2023. Growth in academic programs. Growth in external research expenditures. … award in 2014 as well as one from the International Conference on Chemical, Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Sciences in 2019. Other • Larry Leigh , current head of the Image Processing Lab, in fall 2015 became the first SDSU researcher to receive a Google Earth Engine Research Award. Through the one-year, $46,000 grant he was able to use Google Earth … that count is up to seven. The positions and the current holders of the titles: • Jerome J. Lohr Endowed Dean for the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, Sanjeev Kumar (see separate milestone entry. • Klingbeil Endowed Department Head for Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Kasiviswanathan “Muthu” Muthukumarappan. • Harold C. Hohbach Endowed …