The University Rover Challenge is a competition hosted by The Mars Society which involves teams of university students from around the world all competing for the title. The Mars Society releases the competition details around late September or early October each year. The tasks change from year to year but the goal is to always build the better rover!
The competition was aimed to inspire students to innovate and apply their science and engineering skills to develop a stand-alone, off-the-grid, mobile platform of a Mars rover prototype that will be able to perform duties on the Martian surface.
The competition takes place at the Mars Research Station located in the Utah Desert. The terrain serves as a close match to that of the rocky Mars surface. The teams must be able to maneuver their rovers through the unpredictable terrain blindly.
This is a realistic extension of how an astronaut would actually control the rover if they were situated on Mars.
The 2009 - 2010 Competition Details
URC Requirements & Guidelines Document 2010
Teams are going to be competing in four events: an extremophile search task, a site surveying task, construction task, and emergency navigation mission.?Descriptions of the various tasks are pasted from the URC document.
i. Extremophile Search Task
Teams shall be required to search for and assess the presence of extremophiles in those areas, with particular attention to lithotrophic photosynthetic cyanobacteria. The primary indicator of the extremophiles of interest is reflected light in the visible spectra. Teams may supplement this with secondary observations in the infrared spectra, or minimally-invasive direct measurements at their discretion (teams must be prepared to describe and defend all forms of analysis implemented).
ii. Site Surveying Task
Teams shall be required to perform a remote survey to determine the precise coordinates of field markers that are not reachable by the rover. Teams will be provided with a map of the local region, which will include the precise coordinates of major visible landmarks.
iii. Equipment Servicing Task
Tasks shall include pushing buttons, flipping switches, and connecting male 3-prong plugs (U.S. style) into electrical outlets (the plugs will be hanging from their respective wires with sufficient slack next to the plug). The panel will be vertical, and all items of interest (including text) shall be located between heights of 15cm and 75cm above the ground. From the most forward point of a particular section of panel, the depth to any item of interest shall not exceed 45cm. All text on the board shall be printed in the equivalent of Times New Roman 18 point font in black ink against a white background.
iv. Emergency Navigation Task
Teams shall be required to deliver an emergency supply container to a simulated distressed astronaut (within 1 meter of the astronaut, as designated by the presence of a space suit) as quickly as possible.
Links
Mars Society's University Rover Challenge