The First and Only Student Team from Türkiye Participating in NASA Competition: ITU Bellatrix

Bellatrix Team, formed by ITU students, achieved significant success as the first and only Turkish team to be accepted to NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) 2024.

Bellatrix Team, established in 2023 under ITU Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, became the first and only Turkish team to compete in the 30th Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) 2024 to be organized by NASA.

This year, 72 student teams from around the world, 42 from universities and 30 from high schools, are participating in the competition, which will be hosted by NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center in the USA on 18-20 April.

Traversing the surface of Moon and Mars with human power

The objective of HERC 2024 is for students to design and build human-powered rovers according to the standards set by NASA. In this competition, which is a simulation of the NASA Artemis mission, teams of two pilots, at least one female, are required to complete a course that simulates the surface of the Moon and Mars with the vehicles they build.

Space training to students in the earthquake region

NASA requires as an evaluation criterion for HERC 2024 that team members should engage at least 250 primary and secondary level students in various STEM-related educational activities. Bellatrix fulfilled this requirement with the goal of giving trainings on space and science to secondary and high school students in the February 6 earthquake region.

The participation of Team Bellatrix in HERC 2024 is expected to contribute to the training of qualified people who will take part in national and international space missions and to increase interest of students in space research.

We congratulate our students for their success.