Czech high school students win Conrad Challenge at NASA

Five Czech high school students have won the prestigious international competition Conrad Challenge at the headquarters of the US space agency NASA in Houston. The Czech team, named Lasar, presented the most successful plan how to remotely repair malfunctioning satellites. The success has earned the students scholarships to universities in the US.

The solution the Czechs came up with was how to trigger a reboot on a non-communicating satellite orbiting the Earth. They suggested hitting the solar cells of the satellite with a laser beam. These would  be disconnected from the battery, which would then start to discharge. This would be evaluated by the satellite's systems as a need for a reboot, thanks to which the error would be resolved.

Conrad Challenge was initiated 18 years ago by Nancy Conrad in memory of her husband, Pete Conrad, an Apollo 12 astronaut and the third man to walk on the moon.