A student team from Colorado School of Mines has qualified for the finals of the NASA Mars Ice Challenge for the second year in a row.
Team MINERS, short for Martian Ice New-age Extraction and Recovery System, will be one of 10 collegiate teams facing off in the on-site technology demonstration and water extraction competition at NASA Langley Research Center on June 6-8.
For the competition, student teams design, build and test prototype systems capable of extracting water from simulated Martian subsurface ice. Also qualifying for the finals were teams from Alfred University, Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Rowan University, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Virginia Tech and West Virginia University.
“After Mines’ strong showing at the NASA Mars Ice Challenge last year, we are extremely excited to be selected a second time to put our new ice-water extraction design to the test at the 2018 competition,” said Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources at Mines and research associate professor in mechanical engineering.
Eight mechanical engineering students make up Team MINERS: Scott Jarriel, Alex Baker, Brian Coleman, Brandon Do, Colin Young, Robert Ortega, Ryan Hurlburt and Tanner Osiecki.