OCTC's Rover Team Earns Second Place in NASA Rover Challenge

by Bernie Hale

Owensboro, KY (04/24/2023) — As the only community college competing in the 2017 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC), Owensboro Community & Technical College (OCTC) earned 27th place in the college division after completing two full rounds of the challenging course and was the 2nd highest-placing rookie team. While weather cut the 2018 competition short by a day, OCTC's Rover Team place 9th, completing the challenging course in 6:43, and boasted the second fastest "assembly" time, the time taken for the drivers to secure themselves safely in the rover. In 2019 OCTC sent two teams and rovers to compete in Huntsville, and they earned fourth and ninth-place honors. In addition, they took home the award as the "Most Improved" team in terms of points and time combined. NASA hosted remote activities from 2020-2022 during COVID.

With the challenge being back in action for 2023, there were 48 teams from 20 states and eight countries. The HERC hosts two divisions, one for colleges and universities and one for high schools. Students must navigate the course and are judged based on time, the number of obstacles conquered, and the tasks they accomplish along the way. The course and obstacles are built to mimic lunar objects and surfaces, and the tasks are related to things astronauts would collect in the field. The team's tools must collect multiple samples without causing any cross-contamination. The overall competition score includes not only the action on the course but reports and presentations completed by the team over the last several months.

The 2023 Rover Team is comprised of Max Humphreys, Gretchen Lents, Virginia Neighbors, and Timmy Dorris. The support team includes Shawn Payne, Mary Kinney, Danny Moseley, Randy Crowe. Dr. Meredith Skaggs did not make the trip but worked with the students all semester. This is a collaborative project with Computerized Manufacturing and Machining, and Welding, playing major roles with their faculty expertise.

This year's rover weighed in at 173 lbs. and passed the "cube" test. The team was off to a fast start on day one and blazed through the course in 7:43 driven by the pilot team of Virginia Neighbors and Timmy Dorris. OCTC was again the only community college in the competition and after the first round was sitting in second place with 116 points. One of the team's main goals was to build a Rover to conquer the boulder obstacle, which past OCTC teams found the most challenging. The 2023 OCTC Rover flew through the boulder challenge. At the end of round 1, the University of Alabama Huntsville was in first place with 130 points, and a time of 6:53, OCTC remained in second, and third place was Florida Atlantic University with a time of 7:50 and 111 points. The team was confident they could pick up more points and cut some time for the second round.

Day two's competition saw a revised strategy for OCTC who swapped some obstacles for some tasks hoping to decrease time and increase points scored. The strategy paid off and they blistered the course in 7:04 and completed two additional tasks, scoring 125 points. The OCTC team used syringes to collect the samples.

In addition to earning second place overall, the OCTC Team earned the Task Challenge Award. The University of Alabama - Huntsville earned first-place honors and Ohio Northern University placed third.

OCTC's Shawn Payne, commented, "This marks OCTC's personal best at the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge with a team in 2019 finishing 4th. We hope seeing our success encourages other community and technical colleges to consider participating! The entire team would like to thank NASA Kentucky, Be Real Sports Cycling & Fitness, and Owensboro Community & Technical College for allowing these opportunities!"

You may view a replay of the event on the OCTC Rover Facebook page.

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