For the second time, Bangladesh has become the world champion at the Best Mission Concept Category of the NASA Space Apps Challenge by beating 4,534 teams from 162 countries.
In past human missions to the moon, astronauts had been facing troubles working amid surface dust.
At low gravity, dust particles get easily raised and floated, making it difficult for astronauts to collect samples, as well as ionising due to cosmic radiation, which could have a high possibility of damaging the spacesuit.
"Team Mohakash" from Khulna, secured the TOP place in 2021’s NASA Space Apps Challenge-National Hack-a-Thon, invented an effective solution to this problem, inventing a toolset that traps these dust particles in a closed chamber and prevents the dust from floating, according to a statement of BASIS on Saturday.
The "ARSS-Advanced Regolith Sampler System", a tool invented by "Team Mohakash", will enable astronauts to control the dust that flies freely during the mission to the surface of the aliens, it added.
"Team Mohakash" Team Leader Sumit Chanda said, "It is always a matter of pride to be able to represent our country to the world. We have worked on a solution that the world's largest space research organizations including NASA are still researching.”
The Information and Communication Technology State Minister, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, expressed his excitement over the unprecedented success of Bangladesh in NASA Space Apps Challenge 2021.
BASIS President Syed Almas Kabir said that Bangladesh became champions in 2018, and winning the NASA Space Apps Challenge World Champion for the second time is undoubtedly a great achievement.
More than eight hundred projects were submitted from Bangladesh in this year's edition of the international competition of NASA Space Apps Challenge.
After scrapping the incomplete projects, representatives from 125 projects participated in the 48-hour hackathon, and the best 27 projects were nominated by NASA from Bangladesh.
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