The NASA RASC-AL is a university-level, full mission architecture engineering design competition. Each year, NASA releases several themes for a team of undergraduate students to choose from that focus on designing deep space mission concepts. This last year for the RASC-AL competition, we decided to tackle the Mars Minimum Ascent Vehicle challenge where we designed a 5,000 kg vehicle to bring a crew of two from the surface of Mars to a low Mars orbit.
Here at Clarkson we collaborate with many international universities from across the globe to come up with an innovative solution to a selected theme for the competition. In past years, we have worked with Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Kyushu University. The team is structured more like the workplace to give students a great experience with working on a systems engineering team. If the team is selected to move forward from their proposed design, then they will get the opportunity to travel down to Florida to present their work in front of NASA, leading engineers of the aerospace industry, and mingle with selected students from other universities. Two information sessions will be held on Zoom on April 14th at 5:00 P.M. and April 16th at 4:00 P.M. for anyone interested in joining the NASA RASC-AL team next year. Please RSVP for a Zoom link if you plan on attending this session by emailing Sarah Rodman (rodmans@clarkson.edu). We have many leadership roles to fill and will be looking to fill them by the end of this semester. A detailed document on the roles will be attached with this email. Rising juniors and seniors who are interested in becoming a Team, Communications, or Subsystems Lead, please email Nicholas Snyder (sndyerng@clarkson.edu) with a cover letter expressing why you would be fit for the role.
