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{KXLG Brookings, SD} A South Dakota State University (SDSU) engineering team has made a mark at a NASA contest, finishing third overall and winning an award for building the best prototype. The team was one of 14 selected from 75 higher education entries to compete in the finals of the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition held June 10-12 in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

This is the second consecutive year an SDSU team has qualified for the finals. The teams achievement is noteworthy as this is only the third time in the contests 23-year history that third place has been recognized.

Liam Murray, a mechanical engineering graduate student adviser for the team, said, The points were so close between Maryland and us that it came down to a judges vote. They knew we did well and invented a new suspension system, so they wanted to ensure we were properly recognized.

The SDSU team competed in the large-scale lunar crater prospector category, tasked with designing and building a rover capable of exploring rugged and permanently shadowed lunar south pole craters in search of water, ice, and other volatiles. The rover prototype, a little smaller than a go-cart, uses lidar and high-tech cameras to measure lunar craters' ground composition to locate ground ice.

The teams success is even more impressive, considering they finished ahead of teams from prestigious institutions such as MIT and Stanford. Murray expressed excitement about the prospects for the five mechanical engineering majors who made up SDSUs RASC-AL team. Three of them graduated in May and are returning to SDSU for a masters degree in mechanical engineering with an emphasis on aerospace engineering.

The team faced a significant challenge when their prototype, shipped in three packages, did not arrive as scheduled. Despite this setback, the team reconstructed the prototype in time for the judging session. The judges highly appreciated their dedication and engineering skills.

The most innovative feature of the rover prospector the team built is a double wishbone bogie suspension system. The students design is unique enough that they have submitted an invention disclosure, the first step in the patent process.

The 2024 RASC-AL contest featured many of the same judges as in 2023 and the same program coordinator. In 2023, SDSU won the lunar surface transport category by building a highly customized forklift. At the 2024 contest, program coordinator Pat Troutman admired SDSUs projects.

The RASC-AL team consisted of Delaney Baumberger, team lead; Alex Schaar; Dylan Stephens; Aiden Carstensen; and Braxton McGrath, with Murray as the graduate adviser.

Dylan Stephens, left, and Delaney Baumberger assemble their rover prototype during the early hours of June 11 in a convention center room in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The SDSU students needed to pull the late-night shift when the packages didn't arrive on their scheduled time.

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SDSU Engineering Team Places Third and Wins Best Prototype Award at NASA Contest - mykxlg.com