FROM 42 MOUZA TO NASA

An Odisha non-profit has assembled a team of school students including orphans and children of daily-wagers to build a rover for moon They have been selected to join exploration. NASA's rover challenge.

- R Radhika

Basudeba Bhoi balances everyday school work with building a human exploration rover capable of traversing on the rocky and dusty terrain of the moon. Bhoi, 14, is from Baral village of 42 Mouza in Cuttack, Odisha, where his parents are daily-wage farm labourers.

After teaching himself 3D printing technology and innovating a bionic hand with open-source material, Bhoi is now working on his next passion space exploration.

He and six other school students are building a rover for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) annual Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) 2023. Bhoi's team is part of a non-profit called Young Tinker Educational Foundation that educates school children about STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) disciplines. All members have been part of the foundation's sundry tinkering programmes.

"As a kid, I was always interested in astronomy and science fiction and the idea of discovering new worlds and space exploration really appealed to me. When I came to know about HERC 2021, I started researching the rover challenge. Now that our team has been selected, I will work hard and give my 100 percent effort in the challenge," said Bhoi.

The NASA HERC features a global engineering design challenge every year for school and college students. The event - "a more complex follow-up to the successful NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race," says American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronauticsaligns with NASA's mission to explore the lunar surface with the help of a roving vehicle.