A team of Bangladeshi students became the global finalist in the NASA Space Apps Challenge.

The annual global contest held by NASA features ground-breaking concepts for space exploration created by aspiring space engineers.

Bangladesh's team Mohakash won in the category of the Best Mission Concept.

The team members are Barnita Basak Trisha and Momenul Haque from Bangladesh Army University of Engineering and Technology; and Sumit Chanda, Samir Imtiaz, Shishir Kairy and Alvi Rownok from Khulna University of Engineering & Technology.

There were over 28,000 participants from 162 countries in the contest which included 28 challenges and over 2,800 projects.

The theme for NASA Space Apps Challenge 2021 was "Virtual Planetary Exploration V2.0", for which participants had to create interactive 3D models of geology tools that astronauts can use when exploring surfaces of celestial bodies or planets.

Team Mohakash came up with the concept of Advanced Regolith Sampler System: a battery-powered motor tool consisting of bucket blades. The buckets are placed in a certain sequence to easily scoop materials known as regoliths, which are fragments found on planetary surfaces.