Nice article and pretty impressive challenge:
"The challenge for teams of the NASA Student Launch is to design a system for a simulated Mars recovery mission. Each team must have automated ground support equipment that picks up an encapsulated sand sample off the ground and loads it into the rocket. The rocket will retain the sample throughout flight which, after launch, will achieve a maximum altitude of 3,000 feet. The sample contained in a rocket section will separate at 1,000 feet on descent and parachute down separately with GPS tracking."
- and kudos to Howard for mentoring!
Claude