The Texas Space Grant Consortium’s Design Challenge offers undergraduate students the opportunity to propose, design, and fabricate a solution surrounding NASA’s research objectives. Sponsored by NASA, students work in teams to complete their design objectives over one or two semesters while working with their faculty advisor and a NASA workplace mentor.

By participating in the Design Challenge, students are given the chance to engage in scientific research, hands-on design, space-related career opportunities, communication skills, and educational outreach. For the Fall 2024 program semester, 19 teams were chosen from across the state of Texas to showcase their work.

Competing Teams

Congratulations to the 19 teams that were selected to participate in the program this semester. Included in this group, we have a mix of new and returning projects from the Spring semester. The students represent 12 Texas institutes of higher education.

INSTITUTION	TEAM	DESIGN TOPIC
Houston Community College	NED: Nuclear Eagle Dynamics	104 Lunar Surface Nuclear Reactor Conceptual Designs & CONOPS
Lamar University	The Astroneers	101 Laying Power or Fiber Optic Cable on the Moon
Lone Star College-CyFair	Aquila	40 NASA Micro-g NExT Challenge: Contact Sampling Device
Prairie View A&M University	Astropanthers	102 Lunar Washer/Dryer
Prairie View A&M University	PantherTech	94 IV Fluid Generation (IVGEN) Mini Ph Correction
Rice University	Artemis Owls	105 Lunar Rescue Concept for Incapacitated EVA Crew
San Jacinto College North	13 Characters	105 Lunar Rescue Concept for Incapacitated EVA Crew
Tarleton State University	RELLIS Rovers	91 Lunar Personal Electric Vehicle Mechanical Design
Texas A&M University	Artemis Accords	104 Lunar Surface Nuclear Reactor Conceptual Designs & CONOPS
Texas A&M University Kingsville	Cosmic Javelinas	120 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge
Texas State University	Effectively Grounded!	103 Radiation-Tolerant Crew Laptop
Texas State University	Schrodinger’s Bobcats	86 Integrated Camera & Lighting System Optical Optimization Project
Texas Woman’s University	Team Pleiades	00 Mitigation of Muscle Atrophy During Long-duration Space Flight
University of Houston Clear Lake	Astro Apollo	40 NASA Micro-g NExT Challenge: Microgravity Operations: Softgoods Attachment Device
University of Houston Clear Lake	The Backyardigans	40 NASA Micro-g NExT Challenge: Microgravity Operations: Softgoods Attachment Device
University of Houston Clear Lake	Menteluminosa	40 NASA Micro-g NExT Challenge: Contact Sampling Device
University of Houston Clear Lake	NOVA	110 NASA Lunabotics Challenge
University of Houston Clear Lake	The Space Cowboys	40 NASA Micro-g NExT Challenge: Contact Sampling Device
University of Texas at Tyler	Patriots Engineers	94 IV Fluid Generation (IVGEN) Mini Ph Correction