First-place MAV Prize winning team Cornell University’s rocket takes off at the 2016 Student Launch competition on April 16, 2016. (Image courtesy of NASA/Marshall/Emmett Given.)
Held in tandem with their Student Launch competition this past April, NASA handed out $50,000 in prizes to enterprising young engineers during the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) Prize challenge.
The prize is meant to encourage budding engineers to pursue innovation in robotics, and is a specific prize awarded for completing a complex series of objectives within the Student Launch Competition (SLC).
In addition to building, documenting, launching and retrieving their own rockets in the SLC, the MAV Prize challenged students to bring forth a design that could successfully complete the following tasks:
- Retrieve a geological sample from the surrounding area.
- Successfully place the collected sample within the rocket.
- Launch the rocket to a set altitude of 5,280 feet.
- Successfully jettison a separate capsule (complete with specimen) to an even higher altitude, representative of firing it into orbit above the planet.
In a full-scale, real-world scenario, the capsule would then rendezvous with an orbiting spacecraft for retrieval and a safe return to Earth.
Overcoming Design Challenges Defined the Competition
MAV Prize first place winner was the rocketry team from Cornell University. (Image courtesy of NASA.)
In last month's competition, Cornell University's rocketry team made a dominant showing, taking home first place in the MAV challenge in addition to placing first overall in the Student Launch Challenge.
Cornell also received a nod for Best Overall Design with their Cesaroni K740 powered entry, called Space Jam.
However, the second place entry from Madison West High School also deserves recognition as the only high school entrant in the MAV competition among a field of colleges and universities. They are also the only high school to win a prize in any of the Centennial Challenges. Their MAV Prize entry, named the Large Broccoli Collider (LBC), soared to a height of 4,446 feet before landing safely with its plant specimen cargo undamaged.
Madison West High School of Wisconsin earned second-place honors and a $15,000 prize at the 2016 Centennial Challenges Mars Ascent Vehicle Prize. The team is the first high school to win at a Centennial Challenges competition. (Image courtesy of NASA/Marshall/Charles Beason.)
The Madison West team's faculty advisor, Rob Williamson, attributed their craft's performance to a number of design choices, including the building of a custom 98mm engine mount that allowed the team to use a full K-class rocket motor in a space small enough to have otherwise made this impossible.
On their Facebook page, the team posted about the difficulty the increased thrust caused for their otherwise small rocket frame, causing decreased stability and hampering performance.
The crew at Madison West were undaunted, however, and altered their design.
They used a Van Kaaman (LD Haack) nosecone in order to compensate for the thrust, successfully reigning in the power of the LBC's engine and allowing for greater control and an outstanding performance.
Encouraging Innovation in Young Engineers
The most ingenious thing about the MAV Prize is perhaps how it works as extra incentive for students to innovate, rather than follow the temptation to play it safe with conventional design methods.
Since the idea of an MAV is still relatively novel, the challenge fosters innovation and lateral thinking to solve the problems the challenge (and the steps required to complete it) presents.
To be sure, tried and tested engineering practice is king at the SLC, with students being required to document their design and progress, as well as give regular status updates on their builds throughout the full-year production process.
However, NASA's decision to invest in fostering engineering imagination builds the kind of scientific bravery needed to break free of conventional thoughts and instead create the kind of technological marvels that led to landing men on the moon with less computing power than a calculator.
Those interested in taking part in next year's Student Launch Competition can find out more at their website, including a downloadable PDF with all competition rules and regulations.