Entries in for design competition
The entries are now in for the Aurora student design competition: a call to graduate and undergraduate teams from universities within Europe and Canada to come up with ideas for the robotic and human exploration of the Moon, Mars and asteroids.
Altogether 54 project outlines have been received from universities in Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. The majority of entries fall under the heading of surface robotics, with a close second coming under new enabling technologies, that is, ideas for new technology to enable the robotic or human exploration of planets and asteroids. However, entries were received in all the categories making the distribution of project proposals fairly balanced.
What happens now?
According to Piero Messina, who is in charge of the contest, “All the entries received are of a high standard. Only one project, although interesting, was not considered relevant to the scope of the competition. We have notified all those who entered and the teams now have until 30 July to submit the final project”.
The top three projects in each category will be invited to attend the Aurora Academia Workshop scheduled for 8 and 9 September and which will probably be hosted by the University of Catalunya in Barcelona. There the teams will present their project proposals to an audience of experts and the final winners will be announced.
Further information regarding the competition, including a list of the final prizes, will be sent to the teams and will also be posted on the Aurora website under the FAQ link. Teams can also email any enquiries to the following address:
students4aurora@esa.int
