QUB students head to NASA Lunabotics finals in Florida — SkimNews
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- Queen's University Belfast team of 10 students qualified for NASA's international Lunabotics competition at the University of Central Florida in Florida after winning the UK round in Milton Keynes
- The 52kg aluminum-frame rover is designed to autonomously navigate a lunar-simulated room, excavate sand meant to simulate lunar regolith, and deposit it at another location
- Jack Fitzpatrick, a PhD mechanical engineering student, said the team is the only European entry at the competition, calling it a "real opportunity to represent Northern Ireland, the UK and really Europe abroad"
- Jamie Smith, a third-year electrical and electronic engineering student and software team lead, explained the team was split into software, electronics, and mechanical groups and built rover simulations before they had physical hardware
- The QUB squad will compete against university teams from Australia, India, and the US at the NASA-run event
- Caolán Boyle, Head of Robotics at QPL, said "hundreds of hours have gone into making the rover mission ready for the event"
Why it matters: As the sole European team at NASA's Lunabotics finals, QUB's 10-student squad carries the continent's flag against rivals from the US, Australia, and India, with Fitzpatrick framing the trip as a long-term play — the team is "building a base upon which we can improve year on year and maybe come back in a few years and really come through with a winning design."
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