Bangladeshi team 'Mohakash' wins NASA Space Apps Challenge

NASA Space Apps Challenge is an annual global contest held by NASA that features ground-breaking concepts for space exploration created by aspiring space engineers.

This year, the contest had over 28,000 participants from 162 countries and included 28 challenges and over 2,800 projects. Among them, the team 'Mohakash' from Bangladesh won Global Finalists in the category 'Best Mission Concept'.

Team 'Mohakash' consisted of Barnita Basak Trisha and Md. Momenul Haque from BAUET (Bangladesh Army University of Engineering and Technology) and Sumit Chanda, Samir Imtiaz, Shishir Kairy and Alvi Rownok from KUET (Khulna University of Engineering & Technology).

The theme for NASA Space Apps Challenge 2021 was 'Virtual Planetary Exploration V2.0', for which participants had to create interactive 3D models of geology tools that astronauts can use when exploring surfaces of celestial bodies or planets.

Team 'Mohakash' came up with the concept of 'Advanced Regolith Sampler System (ARSS)': a battery-powered motor tool consisting of bucket blades. These buckets are placed in a certain sequence to easily scoop materials known as regoliths, which are fragments found on planetary surfaces.