The Northeastern University chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, or SEDS, is an interdisciplinary student group dedicated to space exploration and space exploration technologies. SEDS is both a professional and social environment for its 200+ members, some of whom can usually be found at any hour in the club’s primary workspace collaborating on technical projects. SEDS is one of a handful of student group on campus which offers students the opportunity to conduct capstone level research and design before their senior year. The club also hosts a biannual Space and Technology Expo, plus regular Astronomy Nights with the Physics Department that are open to all. Members can participate at any level, from attending an Astronomy Night all the way up to leading a technical design and prototyping project; based on how they get involved, they can gain skills ranging from a general understanding and appreciation of space up to portfolio pieces, research experience, and technical skills in areas like Python, autonomous navigation, and ROS 2.
Since its inception in 2018, the group has conducted a variety of these projects, from creating multiple Mars Rover prototypes to designing and building the COBRA snakebot to prototyping a robot that turns Martian ice into drinkable water. COBRA earned the club first place in NASA’s 2022 BIG Idea Challenge, and the club’s rovers placed first in the 2024 winter Canadian International Rover Challenge and have been finalists for five years running in the University Rover Competition. Additionally, SEDS placed 2nd in NASA’s 2021 RASC-AL Mars Special Edition: Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge. Club members whose projects reach the final rounds typically travel to participate in competitions, with past cohorts visiting Niagara Falls, Canada, Hanksville, Utah, and Pasadena, California. Students who prefer not to travel get the opportunity to showcase their work at local Boston venues like the Museum of Science and the MassRobotics Block Party. SEDS works extensively in the local community, and does multiple major outreach events each year with Northeastern’s Center for STEM, Roxbury Robotics, the Museum of Science.
NU SEDS’ main function is supporting and facilitating a number of research oriented project teams and outreach focused committees. We are currently supporting 4 technical projects: NURover, NU SUITS, NU Lunabotics, and the NEST project. We plan to revive teams next fall to attempt the NASA-sponsored RASC-AL and Micro-G challenges. In addition to competitive teams, we also do community outreach and have showcased our projects at places such as the Museum of Science and MassRobotics Block Party. This year, we’ve also started the NU Astronomy Club, which organizes space-themed events, general meetings, and amateur astronomy outings.
Our largest project team is our NURover team, which consists of over 60 students from nearly every college at Northeastern. The team iterates each year on a prototype Mars Rover to compete in multiple rover competitions.
The University Rover Challenge (URC) is one of the premier world robotics competitions. Hosted annually by the Mars Society, colleges and universities from around the world compete in a series of challenges with custom rovers in an analog Mars environment at the Mars Desert Research Station. Northeastern’s team started competing in 2018 and has qualified as a finalist every year since, traveling to NASA’s Mars Desert Research Station for the past two years (every year since COVID). The team recently celebrated their acceptance into the finals in Utah for 2024 scoring a 92.14, which was much higher than the acceptance threshold of 84.
This year, the team competed for the first time in the Winter Canadian International Rover Challenge (CIRC) in Niagara, Canada. NURover placed first, showcasing their Rover’s dexterity, mobility, and reliability. They plan to attend the CIRC competition again next year. Rover also placed 10th at the URC finals in Hanksville, Utah, which is the highest the team has ever placed in its time competing at URC.
SEDS’ second largest team is our BIG Idea team. The BIG Idea challenge is NASA’s premier university competition and involves submitting a proposal for a solution to a novel problem that NASA comes up with every year. BIG Idea is highly selective, with typically only 8-9 teams with the best and most promising proposals receiving funding to continue development and participate in the finals. In 2022, our Big Idea challenge was one of the handful of finalists chosen by NASA. The team’s solution, COBRA, went on to win first place in the competition finals in Pasadena and received a large grant from NASA for continuing development. The COBRA project has since become one of Northeastern’s Institute for Experiential Robotics most prestigious projects, and NASA is planning on eventually sending a finalized version of COBRA to the moon. We have also submitted proposals last year and this year for the BIG Idea challenge, but were not finalists for funding.
^For more information, see the BIG Idea Home, BIG Idea 2022 , and BIG Idea 2024 notion pages!!!