Ukrainian spacecraft in the top 3 of NASA competition
The Ukrainian aircraft project for Mars, Mars Hopper, entered the top three of the Audience Award of the World Development Forum NASA SpaceApps Challenge.
According to information on the SpaceApps Challenge website, as of Monday at 20:00 (Kiev time) the project scored 8,809 votes. However, the voting is still ongoing and after registration anyone may vote up until May 20th at 5:00 (UTC+4).
The leader right now is the Martian Oasis project from Bangladesh (9,940 votes). Second place is occupied by the Macedonian project, Avis (8,949 votes). Also the Wake up NEO project from Belarus (5,907 votes) and the American Hypnos (4,124 votes) were included in the top 5.
According to the Ukrainian Internet edition delo.ua, if Ukrainians take first place, they will be invited on a tour of the U.S.A. rocket launch site. However, the inventors say they are fighting primarily for the prestige of Ukraine, which is participating for the first time and a good chance of winning the contest.