Dennis Gallagher and Michael Zanetti (ST13) participated in the Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) https://www.nasa.gov/stem/roverchallenge/home/index.html as SMEs, organizers, course setup, judging, and field coordination of excursions (rover course runs). Dennis and Mike were present for the 3 days of course setup and during the 2 days of the event. Additional duties included laying out the Rover Challenge course, videoing the process for NASA TV b-roll, provided competition-day-flow presentation for the Volunteer meeting & for the Team Safety Meeting, and served as operation leads during the event. The event consisted of ~47 international and national university and high-school student designed and built pedal powered rovers over a long obstacle course with science task modules where the teams would earn points for attempts and completion in a time limit.
The winners were the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) and Escambia High School (https://twitter.com/roverchallenge?lang=en), with multiple awards for innovation, outreach, enthusiasm, and social media presence. The competition was broadcast on NASA TV and across multiple social media platforms.
