On Dec. 17, NASA Ames Research Center, located in California’s Silicon Valley, will host student competitors from the Minority University Research and Education Program (MUREP) to investigate design possibilities for a vertical lift aerial vehicle to explore Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The meeting will begin at 8:00 a.m. PST in the second floor conference room of Building 215 and will end at 4:00 p.m. PST.
During the one-day meeting, NASA Ames engineers and scientists will brief the students on the status of the competition, the future of rotor-powered vehicles, planetary science research at NASA Ames and various vehicle design considerations such as autonomous operations and looking at nature for design inspiration.
The competition is being held in anticipation of the arrival of the Cassini/Huygens probe to Saturn and Titan in 2004. Design proposals for the Titan vertical lift aerial vehicle design competition are due March 14, 2003. Winners will be announced on May 3, 2003.
To attend, contact Jonas Dino at Jonas.G.Dino@nasa.gov or 650/604-5612. For more information about the competition, see: http://www.integratedspacetechnologies.com/titan.
