It has been nearly 50 years since humans last walked on the moon. Now, as NASA plans to return to the Artemis project in 2024, a team of high school engineers from central Michigan hopes to take a small step toward this huge leap.

Bob Richards’ science laboratory is where the adventure was born. At the STEM seminar at Stockbridge High School, a group of young elite engineers gather every day.

The achievements of Stockbridge InvenTeam are legendary. Over the years, students have built deep-sea submersibles and helped find the crashed aircraft in the South Pacific. They obtained a patent for an underwater camera and designed a robotic farm technology.

Now, Richards' team is shooting for the moon to design the next generation of lunar rover.

"This is new to us," Richards said. "Due to COVID, we have been'grounded', if you want, and are trapped in school. Therefore, we decided to try to do something different, but still use the same engineering skills."

Stockbridge is participating in NASA's Human Exploration Rover Challenge. 91 international student teams are racing to build a human-powered rover capable of performing a series of tasks on simulated lunar terrain.

Stockbridge is the only Michigan high school to participate in the challenge. The team spends most of their time on the wheels of the rover. Each team must make their own from scratch, including the pedals.

Student Jack Hammerberg said it takes trial and error to determine the best design for the lunar crater surface.

"Obviously, we can't know immediately; this is where the engineering process comes in," Hammerberg said. "But we tried a lot of different ideas to see which ones are the most effective, and then we integrated all these different ideas into one product."

The Stockbridge rover is similar to a two-seater bicycle, kart hybrid. Currently, pedals and chains provide power to the rear wheels. But the team wants more efficiency.

DJ Chapman showed a PVC piping frame that can provide a solution.

"This is a model of the Rover's independent front suspension, so we can work hard to increase four-wheel drive," he said. 

The students only started working on the rover in early October, but student Eliana Johnson was already impressed.

"I can't believe we can get this far," Johnson admitted. "To be honest, I don't think we can even succeed outdoors, but I am proud of the progress we have made now."

Stockbridge InvenTeam maintains contact with NASA throughout the school year. In a few weeks, students will try their technical writing skills when submitting the required design reviews.

The team expects to improve the rover design by January.

The Human Exploration Rover Challenge will be held at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama in April next year.