{"id":926,"date":"2019-06-03T14:03:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T18:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mae\/?p=926"},"modified":"2025-07-28T17:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T21:05:08","slug":"engineering-students-shooting-for-the-moonand-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mae\/news\/engineering-students-shooting-for-the-moonand-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering Students Shooting for the Moon\u2026and Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A team of students from UT\u2019s Tickle College of Engineering will soon put months of hard work to the test as they participate in NASA\u2019s Mars Ice Challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By being only one of nine teams chosen for the finals\u2014and having made the last round for the third consecutive year\u2014the team has already shown its expertise, but is aiming for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve improved on last year\u2019s design by developing a single integrated tool head that can accomplish all of the competition objectives\u2014excavation, prospecting, melting, and water collection,\u201d said Brian Coulter, a senior from Tullahoma majoring in aerospace engineering. \u201cIn years past, different modules were necessary to accomplish all of these tasks. We\u2019ve gained so much from the experience of taking this project from mere concept drawings to an actual functioning machine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coulter added that it was \u201cexciting\u201d to see students from different disciplines working together on the device, something that they wouldn\u2019t otherwise get to experience until their senior design projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s iteration of the competition called Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts\u2014Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Special Edition: Moon to Mars Ice and Prospecting Challenge highlights an area of great importance to NASA\u2019s future plans\u2014the ability to utilize lunar or Martian water sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: <\/strong>NASA Details Its Planned Lunar and Mars Missions<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using that water is a key step, as eliminating the need to bring water on such long journeys frees up thousands of pounds of weight for spacecraft that can be allocated for other needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teams are given a certain set of parameters, with the overall goal of developing a device capable of accessing ice under the Martian surface, but are largely free to pursue that goal with any design they choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UT\u2019s team, from the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering (MABE), chose a device they ironically named This Is Not A Drill, which is, in fact, a drill designed for extracting ice from deep below the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the device, teams must also make a technical presentation on how they went about designing their machine, what challenges they had to overcome, and why they settled on their final design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis project is a great integration of our team\u2019s engineering backgrounds combined with a real hands-on challenge,\u201d said MABE Department Head Matthew Mench. \u201cThe team has worked really hard this past year rebuilding and improving their prototype, and it\u2019s exciting to see them make it to the finals again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASA plans to return humans to the moon by 2024 and establish a long-term presence on the surface as a precursor to missions deeper into space, including Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the 1960s program that led to the first moon landings was known as Apollo, this program is called Artemis, named for Apollo\u2019s twin sister in Greek mythology, and could use some of the designs and knowledge gained by the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finals take place in Hampton, Virginia, June 5\u20139.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UT engineering team reaches Mars Ice Challenge finals with an integrated \u201cThis Is Not A Drill\u201d prototype for ice extraction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nEngineering Students Shooting for the Moon\u2026and Mars - Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UT engineering team reaches Mars Ice Challenge finals with an integrated \u201cThis Is Not A Drill\u201d prototype for ice extraction.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mae\/news\/engineering-students-shooting-for-the-moonand-mars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Engineering Students Shooting for the Moon\u2026and Mars - 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