A team of science-loving Surrey students has rocketed into a NASA-backed competition to build a rover that could roam on distant planets.

The American space agency鈥檚 2024 will involve 10 students at Princess Margaret Secondary who submitted a last-minute proposal in September, hours before a deadline.

, and one of just a few high schools in the college/university-dominated competition to design and build human-powered rovers.

Next April the team from Newton will travel to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the HERC event, which urges research and development of 鈥渘ew technologies for future mission planning and crewed space missions to other worlds.鈥�

to watch video of NASA鈥檚 Human Exploration Rover Challenge.

Now that they鈥檝e been chosen for this challenge, the Surrey students must design and build a two-person rover and also raise funds for the stateside trip.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e super excited,鈥� said teacher Jag Uppal, team advisor. 鈥淭hese are some amazing kids, and they found the competition on their own 鈥� the website, the proposal, that鈥檚 them putting it all together, everything.鈥�

The student team includes Jeevan Sandhu (team lead), Mehul Bhanot (safety officer), Omar Arain, Jasmeet Dhaliwal, Harmeet Sond, Manroop Padda, Parneet Dhesi, Haardik Garg, Victor Gupta and Alex Gupta.

鈥淭his is kind of the engineering Olympics for them,鈥� Uppal added. 鈥淵ou have athletes who get to the national and international levels, and for these students this is an international competition, and they鈥檙e representing their school internaitonally, on that scale. It鈥檚 huge.鈥�

Still in the design phase, their LeoCraft rover is named for the school mascot of the Princess Margaret Lions.

Online, the learning journey will be documented .

鈥淚magine a group of high schoolers more ecstatic about rockets and Mars than the latest Netflix series,鈥� the website notes. 鈥淲e are a diverse group of passionate high school students who share a common love for space, engineering and science.鈥�

Sponsors, donors and scientific guidance is welcomed by these students, who are 鈥渁rmed with dreams as large as the cosmos.鈥�

Uppal said a real challenge is trying to raise $50,000 for the trip to Alabama.

鈥淗alf of that will go to transportation costs for the actual competition (a three-day conference), and the other half will be for designing and building and testing this rover,鈥� the teacher explained.

鈥淩ight now we鈥檙e looking around for equipment that could 3D-print their design, and we could use some help,鈥� Uppal added.

The built rover must be then dismantled and shipped to the HERC event, according to some strict rules.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 think that they were going to get accepted because it was all so rushed and last-minute,鈥� Uppal admitted. 鈥淭hey put it together in, like, two days, their proposal. So for them to be accepted was a big deal, and now they realize there鈥檚 so much work ahead. But they鈥檙e all excited about the challenge.

鈥淚鈥檓 excited for them and I鈥檓 also scared, just the challenge ahead,鈥� he added with a laugh.

This isn鈥檛 the first time Princess Margaret students have been involved in a NASA-backed event. At Florida鈥檚 Kennedy Space Center in 2019, .