By Wayne Smith
Following an internationally acclaimed competition in 2024, NASA is expanding its Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) to include a remote control division and inviting middle school students to participate.
The 31st annual competition will be held April 11-12, 2025, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. HERC is managed by NASA’s Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement in Marshall. The HERC 2025 handbook has been released, providing guidelines for the new remotely operated vehicle (RC) division — ROVR (Remote-Operated Vehicular Research) — as well as detailed updates for the Human-Powered Vehicle Division.
“Our RC division significantly lowers the barrier to entry for schools that don’t have access to manufacturing facilities, have fewer financial resources, or are motivated to compete but lack the technical mentorship needed to design and manufacture a safe, human-powered rover,” said Chris Joren, HERC technical coordinator. “We are also opening HERC to middle school students for the first time. The RC division is inherently safer and less physically demanding, so we invite middle school teams and organizations to submit a proposal to be part of HERC 2025.”
Another change for 2025 is the removal of task areas on the course for the human-powered rover division, allowing teams to focus on the design of their rover. Considered NASA’s largest international student competition, the 2025 Challenge aims to put participants in the mindset of the Artemis campaign as they pitch an engineering design for a lunar all-terrain vehicle – they are astronauts piloting a vehicle, exploring the lunar surface and overcoming various obstacles along the way.
Students interested in designing, developing, building and testing rovers for moon and Mars exploration can submit their proposals to NASA by September 19.
More than 1,000 students on 72 teams from around the world participated in the 2024 Challenge as HERC celebrated its 30th anniversary as a NASA competition. Participating teams represented 42 colleges and universities and 30 high schools from 24 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 13 other countries around the world.
“We saw a tremendous surge in recognition, not only within the agency as NASA Chief Technologist AC Charania attended the event, but also because several of our international teams met with dignitaries and ambassadors from their home countries to cheer them on,” said Joren. “The most impressive thing will always be the dedication and resilience of the students and their mentors. No matter what happens to these students, they still roll up to the starting line singing and waving flags.”
HERC is one of eight NASA Artemis Student Challenges and reflects the goals of the Artemis campaign, which aims to put the first woman and the first person of color on the moon while establishing a long-term presence for science and research. NASA uses such challenges to encourage students to pursue degrees and careers in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Since its founding in 1994, more than 15,000 students have participated in HERC – many former students now work at NASA or in the aerospace industry.
To learn more about HERC, please visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/roverchallenge/home/index.html
Taylor Goodwin
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
256.544.0034
[email protected]
