The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Student from capital city going to NASA's annual moonbuggy race

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Friday, Mar 18, 2011
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Student from capital city going to NASA's annual moonbuggy race

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

Balagopal P.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A student hailing from the city is one among the five who sweated for five months to design a “moonbuggy” for the 18th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race being organised by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on April 1 and 2. Moonbuggies are “lightweight, human-powered rovers” and these will be tested on a “harrowing course that simulates the harsh, rocky lunar surface”, according to NASA.

Balagopal P., a resident of Murinjapalam here, along with four students of the NMIMS University's Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management And Engineering, Vile Parle, Mumbai, will be flying to Huntsville, Alabama, with “Somyaan II” developed by them. The team will be pitted against 80 others from around the world at the U.S. Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville.

The annual event is to design a vehicle that addresses a series of engineering problems similar to those faced by real moonbuggies. Each moonbuggy designed by the students—that can carry a female and a male—should move over half a mile of simulated lunar terrain, complete with “craters, rocks, lava ridges, inclines and lunar soil”. Last year, a buggy designed and created by the students of the same college secured 23 {+r} {+d} position from among 96 teams.

The team, with the experience gained last year and the guidance of Sawankumar Naik, professor, Depatment of Manufacturing, was hopeful to make it to the top at the prestigious race, Balagopal, a third year MBA.Tech. student, told The Hindu. Along with Madhur Sehgal (3rd year B.Tech. Computers), Chinthan Thakkar (3rd year B.Tech. Electronics), Unnati Thappar (2nd year B.Tech. Computers and Paril Chheda (1st year MBA.Tech. IT), Balagopal started preparations way back in 2010.

The team completed the design within two weeks. Soon, they moved to the Balwant engineering workshop in Ujjain as the authorities granted them permission to use the premises free of cost for manufacturing the buggy. “We made sure that two of us would be there every weekend. We analysed the material to be used in manufacturing and studied about the moon's surface in depth. The toughest job was selecting the tyres as it would have to run on a mock moon-surface,” he added.

The cost went up from the estimated Rs.60,000 and it touched Rs.1.25 lakh. The shipping and flight charges would come to Rs.6 lakh.

Balagopal, an alumnus of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, said the moon buggy had undergone all the tests and was all set to be shipped for the NASA contest.

The team has managed to rope in DHL Logistics as shipping partners for transporting their moon buggy. Air India came forward to sponsor the trip of the five students to the U.S. on March 29.

Son of C.G. Padmakumar and Jayasree B., both bank managers in Mumbai, Balagopal said it had always been his dream to explore NASA.

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