A group of Bangladeshi school students will take a rover they built to NASA's competition grounds in the United States next spring.
The Bangladesh Interplanetary Rover Team (BIRT) has been selected for NASA's Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) 2027. It is one of 13 teams in the Middle and High School Remote-Control Division, and the only team from Bangladesh, or anywhere in Asia, in that division.
The final runs take place from April 21 to 24, 2027, at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Before that, the team must present its design in reviews scheduled between November 30 and December 18.
The five members are students in classes 9 to 12. Shafi Bin Sultan leads the team, with Sabik Bin Sultan as co-lead. Safwan Sadad is mechanical lead and pilot, Maria Sultan is pilot and handles documentation, and Aranya Abeer Khan Prapya is safety officer.
Sudeb Paul, Assistant Professor of Physics at St Joseph Higher Secondary School, guides the team. Abu M. Fuad of the EEE department at the University of Scholars is technical mentor.
HERC asks teams to design and drive a rover across a course that imitates rough ground on the Moon or Mars. For students in Munshiganj and across the country, it shows what hands-on science and engineering can lead to.
