BOERNE, Texas – Thirty San Antonio middle and high school students are conducting cutting-edge, collegiate-level aerospace research to learn how humans could live on the moon.
On Saturday morning, after more than a year of work, they descended into the Cave Without a Name outside Boerne with rovers.
"I would really want to live on the moon. I’d miss my family and my dog, and I might come back every now and then, but that doesn’t sound like a bad idea," said sophomore high school student Marco Gonzalez.
“I hope to learn more about how rovers perform just by being able to drive it and see if it’s actually going to be able to go over the rugged terrain,” said freshman high school student Nirmal Kozak.
These students are part of the WEX Foundation, a nonprofit that works with aerospace companies and Port San Antonio to educate the next generation of space workers.
“We tell our kids, no matter what you want to do here on Earth, we’re going to need that position up in space,” said WEX Foundation LCATS program manager.
Students have been designing and coding space rovers for the last year to travel through the Cave Without a Name outside of Boerne. They’re using laser technology known as LiDAR to map out the inside of the caves, simulating mapping lunar caves inside the moon.
“Essentially, it maps all these little dots in 3D. And when you look at it from a certain angle, you get the 3D shape of the cave. Even if it’s dark, the LiDAR can be in the dark and can perfectly see the cave around itself,” Gonzalez continued.
“I love it here because everyone’s really interested in stuff to do with space, physics, just engineering, all of it. And all of these people really care about it, and they find it really interesting, and they all want to be here, which is really nice,” said Kozak.
These students’ work will be used throughout their time in the WEX Foundation program and featured on aerospace research proposals for companies in San Antonio.
