Introduction

Introduction:

We are excited to be back for our fifth year at the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC)! Our team is comprised of 16 students from 9^th- 12^th grade. We are fortunate to have 11 members who have previously participated in one or more HERC competitions. In the last several years, the rover team has become something our Middle School students aspire to be a part of upon reaching High School.

We have visitors to campus quite frequently and one of the most common questions we receive is, “how long did it take for you to build the rover?” The honest answer is that this has been a five-year iterative design process. Our first rover, judged solely on course performance, was an epic failure. However, that first rover and our competition experience in 2014 were phenomenal learning experiences for the group that laid the foundation for the team’s success in the years since. As new students join the team they bring fresh ideas and when harnessed in conjunction with veteran wisdom produces a potent combination of technical systems and engineering expertise.