María Olga Llarte is part of the Hukuroo 3D studio enterprise and together with three colleagues participated in the ‘International Space Apps Challenge’, where they were winners in the ‘Best mission concept’ category. Next Monday she will travel to see the space flight center in the United States.
Hukuroo 3D studio has been established in the province for almost a decade. “We started with our first reprap model 3D printer, which we had to assemble piece by piece, since online resources about this technology were limited at that time,” said Olga.
In 2016 they expanded their horizons by taking courses and workshops abroad including Europe, Chile and Paraguay. During the Covid-19 pandemic, they manufactured 3D printed protective masks that were donated to various entities to help fight the coronavirus.
As a studio they offer 3D printing products and services, they are the only suppliers in the province of supplies such as filaments and resins, as well as FDM printers. In addition to being part of a technological innovation project, ‘Hukuroo 3D studio’ is intended to promote the development and application of advanced technologies and provide comprehensive support to entrepreneurs and students.
Winners of ‘Nasa International Space Apps Challenge’
In 2022 they participated in one of the 23 challenges posed by NASA on problems of life on Earth. It consisted of equate a habitat on Mars: a 3D printing challenge that consisted of designing and print tools, furniture and other essential items to survive and work in a pre-built habitat, using three 3D printers and local materials such as Martian regolith and polymers derived from atmospheric CO2. The objective of the challenge was to ensure the survival and success of the one-year mission, based on the fact that the astronauts had a forced landing on Mars, and that as a result they lost tools and a wheel of the Rover that was damaged. “The habitat provided basic resources such as food, water, air, but lacked many other needs for survival such as furniture, utensils and tools,” Olga described.
In December 2023, they announced the 10 global winners in their 10 categories and Hukuroo was the winner of the ‘Best Mission Concept’ category: the solution with the most plausible concept and design.
Olga explained that she will travel with her teammate, Ivana, and two more members from Mendoza. “On June 4 they receive us for the awards, with engineers and scientists from NASA, we will take a tour of the NASA air and ground museum and the next day we will travel to the Goddard Space Flight Center (Goddard space flight center) located in Washington in Greenbelt (Maryland).
Very excited and preparing everything for the trip, the Recent graduate of the Accounting Administration degree at the ULP He thinks about his venture and the pride of being able to add something more to the project: “Something done with so much love and attention, it is a great effort and reaching this stage is something that we cannot waste,” he expressed.
