Going places:The GITAM University team, selected to participate in NASA's third international annual lunabotics mining competition to held in May, with vice-chancellor G. Subaramanyam, registrar M. Potharaju and faculty members, in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. —photo:C.V.Subrahmanyam
The team has designed and built a lunabot capable of excavation on the moon
A team of 10 students from GITAM University is participating in the third annual lunabotics mining competition being conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Kennedy Space Centre's Visitors Complex, Florida from May 21 to 26. GITAM University is among the 12 universities selected from India and the only university from Andhra Pradesh participating in the prestigious event.
GITAM team, ‘The Illuminati' consisting of Shaik Abdul Shariq, Rudra Pratap and Tirupati Giridhar (mechanical engineering branch), P.V.S.S. Siddhartha and Shaik Mohammed Saifuddin Malik (industrial engineering), Nishant Chowdary and Thota Sai Krishnama Naidu (ECE), Janki Sharad Kumar Bhimani (EEE), Pingili Srichandan Reddy (EIE) and A.V. Aditya Sastry (CSE) are entering into the competition on designing an excavator for the moon surface to collect the sand on the moon. The team earned the berth to the NASA competition after its report on the model it is going to make has been accepted.
This is for the second consecutive year a team from GITAM is entering the NASA competition. Last year, a five-member team from the university entered the competition and made the finals but a small glitch in its model saw the team losing narrowly.
NASA is conducting the competition to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It will also be benefited with the possibility of lunar excavation concepts from the universities throwing up good ideas and solutions which could be applied to a lunar excavation device or payload.
This year, the competing teams have to design and build a lunabot, an excavator that can mine and deposit a minimum of 10 kg. of lunar stimulant within ten minutes. This is a challenging task, said the team of students, since many other aspects have to be taken into consideration.
Guidance
The team started its work with only data available on the web. Their faculty provided some information but they all put their heads together and planned their lunabot, said Siddhartha speaking on behalf of the team at a press conference here on Thursday. The size of the model was taken care of and also the weight has been pegged at around 35 kg. using aluminium, aluminium alloys and other light material. Fabrication was done in Hyderabad and GITAM University here. Likewise, programming, documentation and other areas were taken care of. Their prototype has been successfully tested in moon-like conditions. Standby circuits and engines were also provided. The project costs around Rs. 3.5 lakhs and the team is looking for sponsors while the university has helped to an extent.
The Illuminati is confident of winning the top prize in spite of competition from the US and Canadian universities. Apart from the top prize, it is confident of winning prizes in several sub-sections of the competition.
Vice-chancellor G. Subramanyam was happy to see the university team entering the competition for the second year in succession and that the ingenuity and talent of his students would be displayed at an international competition. Director (students' affairs) K. Veerabhadram and faculty advisor to the team S. Narayana Rao along with registrar M. Potharaju were present. Students of last year's team B. Rajkumar, Vikas Kumar Singh and Sai Suraj V spoke about their experiences.
Going places:The GITAM University team, selected to participate in NASA's third international annual lunabotics mining competition to held in May, with vice-chancellor G. Subaramanyam, registrar M. Potharaju and faculty members, in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. —photo:C.V.Subrahmanyam
A team of 10 students from GITAM University is participating in the third annual lunabotics mining competition being conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Kennedy Space Centre's Visitors Complex, Florida from May 21 to 26. GITAM University is among the 12 universities selected from India and the only university from Andhra Pradesh participating in the prestigious event.
GITAM team, ‘The Illuminati' consisting of Shaik Abdul Shariq, Rudra Pratap and Tirupati Giridhar (mechanical engineering branch), P.V.S.S. Siddhartha and Shaik Mohammed Saifuddin Malik (industrial engineering), Nishant Chowdary and Thota Sai Krishnama Naidu (ECE), Janki Sharad Kumar Bhimani (EEE), Pingili Srichandan Reddy (EIE) and A.V. Aditya Sastry (CSE) are entering into the competition on designing an excavator for the moon surface to collect the sand on the moon. The team earned the berth to the NASA competition after its report on the model it is going to make has been accepted.
This is for the second consecutive year a team from GITAM is entering the NASA competition. Last year, a five-member team from the university entered the competition and made the finals but a small glitch in its model saw the team losing narrowly.
NASA is conducting the competition to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It will also be benefited with the possibility of lunar excavation concepts from the universities throwing up good ideas and solutions which could be applied to a lunar excavation device or payload.
This year, the competing teams have to design and build a lunabot, an excavator that can mine and deposit a minimum of 10 kg. of lunar stimulant within ten minutes. This is a challenging task, said the team of students, since many other aspects have to be taken into consideration.
Guidance
The team started its work with only data available on the web. Their faculty provided some information but they all put their heads together and planned their lunabot, said Siddhartha speaking on behalf of the team at a press conference here on Thursday. The size of the model was taken care of and also the weight has been pegged at around 35 kg. using aluminium, aluminium alloys and other light material. Fabrication was done in Hyderabad and GITAM University here. Likewise, programming, documentation and other areas were taken care of. Their prototype has been successfully tested in moon-like conditions. Standby circuits and engines were also provided. The project costs around Rs. 3.5 lakhs and the team is looking for sponsors while the university has helped to an extent.
The Illuminati is confident of winning the top prize in spite of competition from the US and Canadian universities. Apart from the top prize, it is confident of winning prizes in several sub-sections of the competition.
Vice-chancellor G. Subramanyam was happy to see the university team entering the competition for the second year in succession and that the ingenuity and talent of his students would be displayed at an international competition. Director (students' affairs) K. Veerabhadram and faculty advisor to the team S. Narayana Rao along with registrar M. Potharaju were present. Students of last year's team B. Rajkumar, Vikas Kumar Singh and Sai Suraj V spoke about their experiences.
