Ten engineering students from Queen's University Belfast have been selected to compete in the first International Lunabotics competition, held at the University of Central Florida in partnership with NASA and Caterpillar, following their performance at the UK Lunabotics competition earlier this year.
The students, from Queen's Propulsion Lab, have spent several months upgrading their rover for the international event. The competition requires teams to apply NASA systems engineering principles to design, build and operate a prototype lunar construction rover capable of excavating lunar material, navigating obstacles and constructing a wall from that material.
Queen's will compete against university teams from Australia, India and the United States. The trip has been supported by the Queen's Annual Fund, which distributes alumni donations to student-led projects.
"The Annual Fund is an effective way for the University's alumni and friends to support dozens of student-led projects each year," said Eddie Friel, Director of Alumni Engagement and Philanthropy at Queen's. "We are delighted to be able to support the team as they fly the flag for Queen's and wish them the best of luck in the competition."
Caolán Boyle, Head of Robotics at QPL, said: "The team are exceptionally proud and excited to have been selected by NASA and Caterpillar to compete at the very first International Lunabotics Competition. Hundreds of hours have gone into making the rover mission ready for the event in October and after a tough few weeks, the team now eagerly await their chance to see their work be put to the test in the Lunar yard."
Dr Charlie McCartan, Academic Lead at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, added: "Competing at this international event will give our students an authentic engineering experience on a global stage. They'll also showcase Queen's as a hub for space systems engineering talent. We are incredibly proud to be part of this international competition and wish our team all the best."
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