After a successful ActInSpace hackathon last 13-14th November 2020, where the teams worked hard for 24 hours to solve concrete space challenges, and the national winners were selected, each team had the opportunity to apply for specific special prizes at international level.
In Luxembourg, the LunaLab of the Space Robotics Research Group selected the international winner of the SNT01 challenge prize.
The formalized challenge mission
The SNT01 challenge "Configure test a DIY lunar rover" was introduced by the Space Robotics Research Group from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) at the University of Luxembourg, in collaboration with ActInSpace Luxembourg organizers Technoport SA and InTech SA.
The issued challenge corresponds to an actual need of experts working on the lunar missions topic: how to find aggregated smart technical resources to plan and design rovers to simulate lunar exploration missions.
The “Made in Luxembourg” challenge, proposed to ActInSpace2020 participants at international level, was to conceptualize an application that allows to configure DIY lunar rovers in relation to specific space resources missions such as finding ice on the moon.
Challenge specifications: https://actinspace.org/challenges/be-a-newspace-player-space40/configure-test-a-diy-lunar-rover
The special prize
An enthusiastic prize was designed to award the winners of this challenge to celebrate practical space entrepreneurial learning. All the ActInSpace teams that had selected the SNT01 challenge worldwide could compete for the award.
The prize has been sponsored by the Luxembourg Space Agency, GRADEL and SnT.
The best team with a valid moon rover for the mission of finding ice on the moon has the privilege to: a) Receive by the sponsor SnT a DIY kit to assemble the configured lunar rover; 2) Be invited to assemble and test the rover at the Luxembourg LunaLab in Q2 2021: 1 working week travel and accommodation to Luxembourg covered by the sponsor Gradel; 3) Receive a total cash prize of 2000€ as gift voucher by the sponsor Luxembourg Space Agency.
The international winner: 41Space
Eleven participating teams worldwide selected the SnT Luxembourg challenge at ActInSpace2020 hackathon.
The Luxembourg LunaLab representatives reviewed the project proposals and announced the final winner, the team 41Space.
The team, composed by Margot Gabel, Gabriel Garcia, Sumit Goski, Daniela Ignatova and Julien Stamerra, is very multidisciplinary, covering the domains of design, computer science, engineering and business, and also very international, since the members come from four different countries, The Netherlands, France, India and Luxembourg.
The team was fully created during the ActInSpace hackathon via the profile matchmaking process set up by the event organizers.
The winning team is now going to be supported by the LunaLab, Technoport and InTech to validate a 3D printable model of the rover, to then assemble and test it at the LunaLab in 2021 during a two days workshop and demo day.
More about ActInSpace-Luxembourg: https://actinspace.org/country/luxembourg
