AMMAN — Students from the Faculty of Technology Engineering at Al-Balqa Applied University won second place nationally in a competition for space research. The competition was held by the
Jordan Space Research Initiative (JSRI) in cooperation with
NASA.
اضافة اعلان
Omar Baalbaki, one of the students in the winning team, said that the competition began in March with almost 65 participates from all around Jordan. The competition was divided into two categories, in the first one, participants had to make a creative space suit, while in the second category, participants had to develop a rover to explore the surface of Mars.
“We began as four members in the team, then we grew to five and started to do some scientific researches and studies about creating a spacecraft. We then decided that our mission was going to be for Mars from 2026 to 2032,” Baalbaki told
Jordan News in an interview.
“Based on our studies, we found that the climatic conditions on Mars, in particular, are suitable for humans to live there in the future, and that is why we picked Mars as our mission,” Baalbaki said.
“The mission is divided into two parts, the first one in 2026 to collect some samples from the surface of Mars and send them back to earth. Using a special mechanism we will be have the first martian samples brought back to earth,” Baalbaki said
The second part of the mission in 2032, was to try to send the first astronaut to Mars, Baalbaki said.
The five-member team include Ammar Allam, Mohammad Abu Deyyeh, Mohannad Zaatrah, Zaid Ghazzawi, and Omar Baalbaki.
“We were the first to take part in the activities of the Jordan Space Research Initiative (JSRI) that aims to develop space research in Jordanian society,” Baalbaki said.
“We handed in the first research paper to JSRI after almost five months of research. They gave us funds and we started to transform the idea from paper and to reality by finding the components we need for our mission as proof of concept,” Baalbaki said.
Last month, the team finished designing the rover, and started to prepare for the pitch. “There was a big event in Wadi Rum late October, which was attended by a group of social media influencers, representatives from NASA, and experts in the field of space research, to choose the best design for a rover,” Baalbaki said.
He said the team gave a presentation and demo of their mission to the red planet and were awarded second place nationwide.
“We have got many important sponsors from large private sector companies like ZINC, however, we had no governmental sponsorship,” Baalbaki said. He said that even their university did not give them the needed material support.
“We are looking for foreign funding because it seems that in Jordan people are not interested in such projects,” Baalbaki said. “If we find the support we are looking for we are going to proceed with our project, however, if we do not find that support we will have to cancel the whole idea,” he said.
Baalbaki said that despite such difficulties, he advises everyone to keep trying to reach their dream, adding that he believes in the saying that ‘sometimes you have to suffer to get what you want.’
For his part, Balqaa Applied University president, Abdullah Sorour Al-Zoubi praised this achievement, which he said added to the record of achievements made by the university’s students, especially in the applied engineering fields.
He congratulated the students participating in this competition and the great efforts they made for months to prepare for this competition.
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