News desk :
A group of Bangladeshi students have won the NASA Space Apps Challenge award for Best Mission Concept, reports bdnews24.com
Team Mohakash from Khulna that won the Global Nominee Honourable Mention award last year secured the 2021 award for developing the idea of a tool for astronauts to collect samples or clean a planetary surface for space exploration or colonisation missions. The tool — Advanced Regolith Sampler System or ARSS — uses a bucket technology to scoop and amp, trap the regoliths, the layer of unconsolidated solid material covering the bedrock of a planet.
The specialised bucket can be easily attached to the previous common handle of the toolset that ensures prevention of being
a bulky device which makes it a handy tool. In the previous Apollo missions, astronauts reported difficulties while handling the regoliths that tend to stick to an astronaut’s spacesuits and other instruments. Also, scooping was difficult for the scattering of regoliths due to reduced gravity.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, or BASIS, said the Bangladeshi team won the award by defeating 4,534 teams from 162 countries of the world.
“It always feels proud to represent our own country to the world. We have worked on a solution to a problem that is still being researched by the world’s largest space research organisations, including NASA,” said Sumit Chanda of Team Mohakash.
“We have once again shown that Bangladeshi students can solve the biggest problems of the world if they are determined.”
Sumit thanked the team members, university teachers, mentors and BASIS for their supportive role in their achievement. Top officials of BASIS also congratulated the winners.
“This achievement is another unique example of the progress of Digital Bangladesh,” said Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT.
More than 800 projects from Bangladesh were submitted for the NASA Space Apps Challenge, organised in collaboration with the BASIS and Basis Students Forum.
After scrutiny, representatives of 125 projects participated in a 48-hour hackathon.
The qualifying round was held simultaneously in nine cities of Bangladesh. Finally, 27 projects were sent from Bangladesh for NASA.
Bangladeshi students won the NASA award in 2018 as well. Team Olik from the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology won the Global Nominee award that year for solving problems related to virtual space exploration.
