DIANA

DUCTI INGENIO ACCIPIMUS NATURAM ASTRORUM

DIANA is a team of 76 students from Politecnico di Torino who are interested in space robotics. The team is made up of students from different study courses and countries. In 2008, the team was created to design and develop a lunar rover for the national project AMALIA, which aimed to participate in the Google Lunar X-Prize. Since then, the team has produced three lunar rover prototypes named AMALIA.

The team started a new project in 2015 with the aim of participating in the Rover Challenge Series competitions. They participated in the European Rover Challenge 2018, where they ranked 15th among 65 teams. The team used their experience in the competition to work on projects for the Martian environment. In 2019, the team started the project TRINITY, which competed in the European Rover Challenge in the same year. Despite facing difficulties in developing the project in just one year, the team managed to participate in the Indian Design Rover Challenge 2020.

The team heavily renewed their organizational structure and developed a new teamwork approach with the aim of involving more people in the project. The new arrangement had a positive impact on the team’s work quality and skills. However, due to the delay in the procurement, assembling, and testing of the project, the team faced challenges during the ERC 2021. They learned from their failures and implemented new procedures in project management.

From July to December 2021, DIANA participated in the PoliTOmoon project, which involved other student teams and a research group from Politecnico with the aim of presenting an integrated system to the “ESA-ESRIC Space Resources Challenge.” Based on the team’s improvements in teamwork and organization and the lessons learned from previous competitions, DIANA is now working on preparing the ARDITO system for the ERC 2022 competition with a different mindset and approach.