Sendai and more broadly the Tohoku region of Japan, is recovering from the earthquake, and White Label Space wishes to present a positive vision of the future to the children growing up in that challenging environment. The rover development of White Label Space is being led by
Kazuya Yoshida who has a deep relationship with the Sendai region of Japan through his position as professor of aerospace engineering at Tohoku University.
Recently Sendai National College held an exciting education event for local school children with the assistance of White Label Space. The event called "Rover Challenge" aimed to teach some science and engineering through an interesting and exciting hands-on experience.
To begin the educational event, Mr. Hakamada, CEO of White Label Space Japan, described the exploration activities of White Label Space and in particular the lunar rover being developed in Japan. The children listened curiously, before they got the chance to drive the WLS rover in a simulated obstacle course on the Moon's surface. This was very popular amongst the school students. The supervisors whispered secretly to the WLS members that they also wanted to try the game later on.
After the game, each of the children got to make their own kit rover with a simplified design that still kept the main driving functions, deepening their understanding of the challenges of rover design. Supporting the children for the kit assembly were members of the local Robot Contest club that previously won the Tohoku district tournament and currently aims to win the national championship. During the assembly of the kit rovers, no conversation could be heard.
The WLS members were concerned that the kit construction would take too long but most of the children finished making their kits in time and started to play with it in their own ways.
Hopefully some of the children will go on to become space engineers in the future. Thanks very much to the college students and the teachers who helped us!
This event was covered by the largest local news paper, Kahoku Shimpo.
If you are interested in the Rover Challenge, please contact White Label Space Japan.
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