2023 RASC-AL Competition

  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
  • 03/13/2023
  • https://rascal.nianet.org

Program Overview

  • Open to teams of undergraduate and/or graduate students studying fields with applications to human space exploration, NASA’s RASC-AL Competition is an engineering design challenge that allows students to incorporate their coursework into real aerospace design concepts and work together in a team environment. This year's competition is also seeking space-minded business, management, and space policy students to form multidisciplinary teams alongside traditional engineering majors. The 2023 RASC-AL themes range from supporting lunar operations and tourism at the south and north poles, to enabling long-term survival on the surface of Mars. Each team’s proposal should include novel and robust technologies, capabilities, and operational models to support expanding humanity’s ability to thrive beyond Earth in response to one of four themes:  1) Homesteading Mars: Develop a crewed human exploration architecture of Mars that can enable astronauts to survive on the surface of Mars for at least 7 years with minimal support from Earth. 2) Lunar North Pole Tourism: Develop a profitable business case and associated architecture for bringing tourists to the lunar north pole, using a mix of NASA-derived and in-development commercial systems. 3) Lunar Surface Transporter Vehicle: Develop a vehicle concept for offloading, moving, deploying, and supporting payloads on the lunar surface, up to the scale of habitats. 4) Multi-use Platform at L1: Develop an architecture and system concept for a platform that provides spacecraft services and logistics, as well as space observations and communications, deployed to and operated from the Earth-Moon First LaGrange Point (L1) in cislunar space. Teams who submit an NOI by the deadline will be invited to attend an interactive Q&A Session with the NASA Sponsors on October 27, 2022.

Program Benefits

  • In FY23, up to 14 teams may be chosen to compete at the RASC-AL Forum in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Each team will receive a monetary award to facilitate full participation in the RASC-AL Forum. The teams with the top two winning papers will be invited to present their design projects to industry experts at a major aerospace conference, such as AIAA ASCEND (additional travel stipends provided).

Program Contact

  • Victoria O'Leary
  • rascal@nianet.org

Location

  • Nationwide
  • United States

Type Of Program

Audience

  • Collegiate

  • Faculty

Discipline(s)

  • Aerospace Engineering

History

Established

01/2002

Individuals Served

  • 1,001-2,000

Research, Roles & Responsibilities

Research Components

  • Funding to attend professional development sessions/coursework

  • Stipend/compensation

Identity & Inclusion

  • RASC-AL helps to shape senior design for students interested in aerospace, and gives them a framework to do a project based on real aerospace engineering. Students grow to become very comfortable with what they have learned.

Diversity Groups (Social Identity)

  • N/A

  • Other

Race/Ethnic Minority Group

  • African American/Black

  • African American/Hispanic American

  • African Americans

  • African-American

  • Alaska Natives

  • American Indian and Alaska Natives

  • and Pacific Islander

  • Asian American

  • Cuban Americans

  • European American/White

  • Hispanic/Latino

  • Hispanics

  • Native American

  • Native Americans

  • Native Hawaiians

  • Other

  • other Pacific Islanders

  • Pacific Islander

Inclusionary Practices/Activities

  • Development Of Academic Sense Of Belongingness (E.G. Meetings With Doctoral Scholars, Peer Researchers, Exchanges At Academic Conferences)

Voice

Mentoring Components

  • Mentees Are Allowed To Attend Events With Mentors

    I.E. Dinners, Social Events, Conferences, Retreats) Mentees Are Allowed To Attend Events With Mentors (I.E. Dinners, Social Events, Conferences, Retreats

  • Mentors Provide Mentees With Access To Academic Resources

Empowering Activities

  • Academic Recognition (I.E. Research Credibility, Prestige)

  • Publication Opportunities

Expectation

  • N/A

Evaluation Methods

  • Other

Key Performance Indicators

N/A

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Copyright © 2021 Academic Pipeline Project

This material is based upon work partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. and 1818458 and 2010676. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed on this site are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation

 

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