University teams from across the U.S. presented their space mission designs at NASA’s annual Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition, held June 20-23 in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

Alec Auster led a team of undergraduates with help from partners Honeybee Robotics, Aerospace Corp, and Kinetic Upstream to a second place finish for their concept, a Mars Ice Thermal Harvesting Rig and In Situ Resource Utilization Laboratory (MITHRIL). The team will receive a travel stipend and presentation slot to showcase their concept to aerospace industry professionals at the 2022 ASCEND Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 24-26.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, RASC-AL is one of NASA’s longest running higher education competitions and encourages students to move the needle on concept development and trade space analysis and bring fresh ideas compatible with NASA’s space exploration efforts. .