2022 Awardee, University of Connecticut: “Morphing Tank-to-Leg Modality for Exploratory Lunar Vehicles”
The University of Connecticut 2022 NASA BIG Idea Challenge team is researching and developing a novel tank-to leg modality in support of NASA’s Artemis mission which targets the lunar south pole. The team’s goal is to combine the robust stability and energy efficiency of a tank with the adaptable stability and obstacle avoidance characteristics of a quadruped. This new modality must be able to traverse steep slopes and icy surfaces.
The team submitted a letter of intent to compete in September 2021. They spent the rest of the fall semester developing their concept. Mid-January they submitted their proposal and at the end of February they became one of seven funded finalists. They are a first team to compete from the University of Connecticut. Work on designing, building and testing the prototype began immediately and continues to this day. The team heads to Pasadena, CA mid-November to present and compete in the NASA’s BIG Idea Forum Competition.
The team was featured in UConn Today and has been interviewed a number of times by various CT news media including NBC-CT and WFSB.
The Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge is an initiative supporting NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s (STMD’s) Game Changing Development Program’s (GCD) efforts to rapidly mature innovative and high-impact capabilities and technologies for infusion in a broad array of future NASA missions.
Funded by GCD and the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, this NASA-sponsored engineering design competition seeks innovative ideas from the higher education academic community for new topics each year that are relevant to current GCD priorities.
Participation is open to teams of undergraduate and graduate students at accredited U.S.-based colleges and universities officially affiliated with their state’s Space Grant Consortium.