Al Anzaldua, center, and David Cheuvront worked with more than 100 students, professors and mentors.
Credit: Alfred Anzaldúa
The first Mexican lunar rover competition for undergraduate students, Hacia una Base Lunar (Toward a Lunar Base), has been completed. Fifty-six
teams registered in the first phase of the competition from 13 Mexican states and 32 institutions. The goal of the competition is to build a rover that can be maneuvered remotely from a control room and travel through a 9,687-square-foot (900-squaremeter) simulation of lunar terrain, which includes rocky and sandy areas, a slope, and a crater. The rover must collect, weigh, and carry at least two pounds (just under one kilogram) of rocks, measure and transmit slope inclination and temperature readings, transmit images of nearby terrain, and continuously report its location. Finally, the rover must be able to recover from a 15-second power interruption. Only 15 minutes are allotted to complete the demonstration mission.
The contest originated at the Astronomy Institute of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the largest public university in Mexico, and was crafted by enthusiastic scientists and engineers from a number of institutions with input from NSS representatives Alfred Anzaldúa and David Dunlop, and Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) representative Rodrigo Romo. The Mexican Space Agency and the Aerospace Cluster of Baja California are also involved as supporters. The terrain for the final stage of the competition is located on the campus of the Instituto Tecnológico de Ensenada in Baja California, Mexico. The director and coordinator of the competition is Professor Wofford from the Institute of Astronomy at UNAM.