President Luis Abinader congratulated the teams this Saturday Apollo 27 and Apollo 27 RC For reaching 8 awards at the human Exploration Rover Challenge 2025, a competition from the United States Government Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The recognition arises precisely while the Dominican Republic is in a process of mourning for the more than 220 people who died last Tuesday due to the collapse of the disco Jet ist.
“In the midst of so much pain, good news comes. Congratulations, boys, it will be an honor to receive them in the National Palace, ”said the president in an X publication.
The Rover challenge
The main objective of “NASA HUMAN EXPLORATION ROVER CHALLENGE, HERC 2023” is that “student teams design, develop, build and test red and human -driven rovers capable of crossing challenging land and a work tool to complete several mission tasks.”
NASA explained that the teams gain points by successfully completing the design reviews, design and assemble a rover that meets all the criteria of the challenge and successfully complete the obstacles of the route (a walk is made in the Rover) and the tasks of the mission. “The team with the largest number of points accumulated throughout the year of the project in each category is the winner,” said NASA.
“We are very active, the team yesterday started and today we are in the last phase of the competition,” said Ezequiel Díaz, tutor of the Dominican team and professor of Mechatronics Engineering at INTEC, during an interview with this media, held on April 22, 2023.
“We are fixing it because before the awards ceremony we have to run again,” Diaz said.
Apollo 27 has already been the winner of the System Safety Award (2020) and Stem engagement Award (2022).
The competition route requires that two students, with at least one woman and use the vehicle designed by them to walk approximately half a mile on a journey that includes a simulated field of asteroid debris, rocks, erosion grooves, cracks and an old bed of a river.
“The weight and time requirements of the challenge encourage compactness, light weight, high performance and rover efficiency,” NASA said.
