'Dream come true' for young GTA students controlling moon rover in simulated space mission

A group of Grade 6 students in Mississauga put their heads together for a simulated space mission where they remote controlled a rover to find ice on the moon.

“It feels really good,” said Aubrey Smale, who acted as a rover heath monitor during the mission. “When I was really little, I wanted to do stuff like this and it’s like a dream come true.”

• Download our app to get local alerts on your device
• Get the latest local updates right to your inbox

The students attend Lisgar Middle School and are the youngest group to take part in a national space competition dubbed the “Lunar Rover Research Challenge.”

The goal of the simulation is to find ice, and therefore water, on the moon, just like real scientists. The difference is that these students control their rover in Stratford, Ont. with their classroom acting as mission control.

“I feel like ‘Oh My God. I can’t believe I’m a part of the space mission,” said payload operator Nandan Namburi.

The classroom has been set up to divide students into groups, each with a speciality critical to the mission.

Some students plan the rover’s route, others remote-control the machine, while teams keep checking to make sure the rover is working properly and gather vital information about everything from temperature to craters.

“It’s hard, but it’s very exciting and stressful at the same time. So we really enjoy it,” said Prisha Agarwal, one of the rover drivers.

The competition is run through the charity Let’s Talk Science, Canadensys Aerospace Corporation and Avalon Space, with support from the Canadian Space.

In all, more than 16,000 youths took part.

“Amazing experience,” said Jack Suleman, one of the navigators. “Hard work pays off. All the time we spent making the applications, and now we reap the benefits.”

Students at Lisgar Middle School in Mississauga, Ont. participate in the Lunar Rover Research Challenge on Jan. 16, 2024.

Many of these students already had an interest in space prior to winning the competition and are part of Peel District School Board’s international business and technology program.

The challenge is an exercise full of learning and fun.

“It’s loud, it’s stressful and that’s exactly what we want, it’s a space mission right?” said Leah Davis-Purcell, a mission systems and outreach specialist with Avalon Space.

“The main point of it is communication, using a decision making process, using the logic, the shadows, the sun, where the ice would be.”

It took two hours for the students to complete the mission.