Student from SLCC Chosen to Build Robotic Rovers for NASA

Christopher F. Thompson from the Salt Lake Community College has been chosen to travel to the Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville to participate in the National Community College Aerospace Scholars program (NCAS) organised by NASA. The NCAS is a three-day event where the participants will have to develop a robotic Mars rover.

Mr. Thompson will have to first set up his team and create an imaginary company with his team which will be working on the Mars exploration. The teams will have to create the infrastructure for their company and proceed to design and build the rover. Apart from working on their Mars rovers, the students will be taken on a tour of the premises and the facilities and also be briefed by the scientists and engineers at NASA. A total of 48 students have been selected across 25 states to visit the Marshall Space Flight Center during November 8 to 10.

The director of Education at the Johnson Space Center, Susan White, was of the opinion that community colleges produced some of the greatest problem solving talents in the country. She added that programmes such as the NCAS contributed towards pushing the students closer to pursuing a career in STEM. The selection criteria for the NCAS were based on the results in the web-based assignments on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) topics conducted in schools. NCAS is part of the Texas Aerospace Scholars program, which is the result of NASA’s partnership with the educational institutes in Texas.