Student-powered 'moon' rovers put to the test | Space photo of the day for June 2, 2026

A team navigates an obstacle course on an Earth-bound rover as part of NASA's 2026 Human Exploration Rover Challenge. (Image credit: USSRC/Megan Holbrook) Hundreds of students came together to design, build, and test rovers on an Earth obstacle course to prepare for the moon. Space exploration starts with a lot of hard work on Earth. And in this new photo , we can see a hardworking student team putting the pedal to the metal in a rover their team designed and built for NASA's Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC). What is it? Every year, hundreds of students from around the world participate in HERC , a nine-month long challenge to design and build human-powered or remote-controlled rovers that could be capable of traveling across the moon's surface . After months and months of designing, developing, building, and testing, the teams put their rovers to the ultimate challenge with a final event in Huntsville Alabama where NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is located. At this event, which took place in April, 2026, the students drove and/or remotely operated their rovers through a specially designed half-mile obstacle course to see how they might really fare on the lunar surface. Why is it incredible? HERC is open to students ranging from middle school to college-age. This year, students from 28 colleges and universities, 13 high schools, and one middle school from around the world participated. …