Competitions
At GU Orbit, we actively encourage students from across all disciplines (not just engineering) to participate in space-related competitions. Starting this year, we have dedicated officers to help coordinate and guide our members in our competition teams. These events provide an opportunity for our students to apply their knowledge, develop new skills, and engage directly with challenges faced by the space industry.
Below, you can explore some of the competitions our teams have taken part in.
2024 - 2025
Olympus Rover Trials (ORT) | UKSEDS Competition
The challenge tasked university teams across the UK with designing, building, and operating a rover capable of traversing rugged terrain and capturing high-resolution images of QR codes, representing geological features. The competition also included a vibration test to simulate the rigorous of launch conditions.
On July 20th, our Banana Island team excelled in both technical execution and design innovation. The rover featured a custom robotic arm and successfully completed all mission objectives under challenging weather conditions. GU Orbit was awarded Best Critical Design Review, Best Innovation, and named the overall winner of the competition.
Fly Your Ideas competition | AIRBUS
This global competition addresses real aerospace challenges in areas such as sustainability, artificial intelligence and business modelling. Our team participated by proposing a unique solution, gaining valuable experience in teamwork, problem-solving and innovation, all of which are at the core of the challenge.
2022 - 2023
AIRBUS Space Competition | AIRBUS
In 2022, we presented 2 missions: an organ manufacturing station and a satellite refurbishment robot. In 2023, we got 2nd place with a solar sail design capable of orbital lunar servicing for over 6 years to help the lunar economy.
Satellite Design Competition | UKSEDS
In 2020, GU Orbit won 1st overall for designing a nanosatellite payload system for a lunar mission. The designed CubeSat would collect data from historic lunar landmarks; maximise landmark revisit times, to provide redundancy on the data acquired; and would send back collected data via a lunar relay satellite.
