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‘NASA Student Launch Challenge’

Vanderbilt Rocketeers take on the 2020 NASA Space Robotics Challenge

Nov. 7, 2019—NASA is challenging college and university rocket teams to design solutions for its proposed manned and unmanned planetary missions to the Moon and beyond. The agency is committed to landing American astronauts, including the first woman, on the Moon by 2024 through its Artemis exploration program. A 25-member engineering team—13 seniors, 9 undergraduates and three...

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Vanderbilt rocketeers win sixth payload design award at NASA launch competition

Apr. 20, 2016—The Vanderbilt student rocket team collected two key awards in NASA’s Student Launch Challenge following a near flawless flight of their Thrustworthy rocket Saturday, April 16, at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama. At the awards banquet held at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Vanderbilt – three-time national champs – won the coveted...

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Mars rocket demo wows at Nashville school’s assembly

Mar. 19, 2015—A robotic arm moves directly over a Vanderbilt Aerospace Club rocket. In the arm’s grippers is a white capsule the size of a hotdog bun. “The arm moves nice and slow and safe like NASA likes it because failure is not an option,” said William Emfinger, graduate student mentor to the Aerospace Club. When the...

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Aerospace Club works on simulated Mars sample recovery vehicle for NASA competition

Dec. 4, 2014—The Vanderbilt Aerospace Club, defending champions in the NASA Student Launch (NASA SL) Challenge for the past two years, is tackling the agency’s all-new 2014-15 design challenge. The rocket team is working on an earth-simulated Mars Sample Recovery Vehicle, which includes an Automated Ground Support Equipment Robot (AGSE) that autonomously places an encapsulated soil sample...

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