WHAT
TouchTomorrow: An Interactive Festival of Science, Technology, Robotics and Aerospace at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
*Featuring the NASA Sample Return Robot Challenge, a competition to help find the next generation of planetary rovers – with a prize purse of $1.5 million!
WHEN
Saturday, June 16th, from 10AM to 5PM
WHERE
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts
HIGHLIGHTS
Dozens of fun, interactive exhibits and activities for the whole family, all celebrating science and technology, including:
• Robots of all shapes and sizes, including robots you can drive, robots that will take orders from you, and robots that will be competing to become the next generation planetary rover!
• Astronauts Chris Ferguson and Lee Morin will be speaking and meeting TouchTomorrow attendees.
• Take your photo in a NASA spacesuit, drive a virtual rover across the Martian landscape, embark on a Lunar Quest, explore black holes, play with giant bubbles, or engineer a satellite.
• Watch a real rocket launch!
NASA SAMPLE RETURN ROBOT CHALLENGE
The latest of NASA’s Centennial Challenges, a series of competitions created to inspire innovation for use in space, the Sample Return Robot Challenge is looking for the next generation of robots to explore the landscapes of other worlds.
The NASA-WPI Sample Return Robot Challenge requires the competing teams to design and build an autonomous robotic system that will locate and collect a set of specific objects from a large area and return the "planetary samples" to the starting zone. The competition will take place Saturday, through TouchTomorrow, and possibly Sunday, June 17th.
For more information, visit touchtomorrow.wpi.edu, NASA, and WPI’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/WPI/videos.
