We are currently drafting the rules and coordinating details for the 2009 University Rover Challenge, and hope to announce them at the beginning of September.

To receive URC announcements, please subscribe to the URC list-serve by sending a blank email to:
announcements-subscribe [at] universityroverchallenge [dot] org

The Challenge:
For the second year, teams of university students will design and build the next generation of Mars rovers.
June 5-7, 2008 the teams and their rovers will face off at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.

The Prize:
The winning team will win transportation, lodging and admission for 5 team members to the
11th Annual International Mars Society Convention in Boulder, CO August 14-17, 2008, and large cash prizes.

June 13, 2008: Competition photos are now available. More are being added as the web team sorts through and captions them.

June 7, 2008 @ 23:00 MDT: Oregon State University has been announced as the winner of the 2008 University Rover Challenge. They were followed closely by defending champions University of Nevada, Reno, as well as York University of Toronto, Canada in third. See the official announcement for more details.

June 7, 2008 @ 19:30 MDT: The "distressed astronaut" challenge has been completed by the final two teams (BYU unfortunately withdrew after an unrepairable malfunction in the science event), with drama down to the final seconds.

Georgia Tech began their 35-minute time period without the ability to communicate with their rover, due to an as-yet-undiagnosed wireless communications problem. Scrambling to get their rover out beyond the starting line, the team eventually resorted to booting into Windows, where they had done some preliminary design work before switching to a Linux platform. Unfortunately, this move was stymied when they were unable to log into Windows; time continued to tick down, and with five minutes left, it appeared as if Georgia Tech would never leave the start line.



In a sudden stroke of outside-the-box genius, the team suddenly realized that, since they could score points for being within a certain distance of the astronaut as time expired, they stood a reasonable chance simply by hard-wiring their motor to go and letting the rover drive on its own. They raced over, made the switchover, and sent the rover on its way. Navigating over several hills and gullies, the rover at first appeared to be headed off-course, when it hit a hill and changed direction -- heading directly for the astronaut. After another pair of unintentional course corrections, the rover ended up within 10 meters of the astronaut as time expired, leaving Georgia Tech with the second-highest score of the day for the challenge.

Iowa State's rover performed well out from the start. After finding themselves in a particularly rocky gully, the team was able to steer the rover through several tuns that nearly caused it to tip on its side. Unfortunately, the rover moved directly into a sandy area, and was soon contorted so badly that the team had to take a penalty to have a crew member reset it.

For nearly 15 of the 35 minutes, the rover was essentially stationary, as an intermittent throttle issue surfaced and kept them from progressing. After sending out their fourth crew member to put in a fresh set of batteries -- leaving only one person to steer the rover -- the countdown to the end of their time reached roughly 30 seconds, and the team was preparing to retrieve their rover. Suddenly, the rover shot forward, as the driver yelled out, "I can't stop it, I can't stop it!". Flying away from the astronaut, the driver returned to his senses and shifted hard to the south, aiming the rover on what turned out to be a collision course with the astronaut. With a judge and several team members sprinting towards the out-of-control rover, the clock hit zero, the field judge marked the spot of the rover, and two team members scooped up the rover before it careened directly into the astronaut's helmet. Checking the GPS and the clock, the judges determined that the rover was 12 meters from the astronaut as time expired.

June 7, 2008 @ 13:30 MDT: York University and University of Nevada, Reno have both finished the "distressed astronaut" challenge, and while both teams performed admirably, mechanical failures prevented them from reaching the astronaut. Within the first 10 minutes, York had lost two cameras from their rover, which crippled their navigation capability. Despite this, they soldiered on, and came within roughly 40 meters of the astronaut, making a direct line for it before abruptly turning away. Recapping later, the navigation crew agreed that had they had full camera strength, they would have undoubtedly found the astronaut.



UNR started strong out of the gate, following the same route that had brought OSU and York success, before radio difficulties interfered with communications. After taking a score penalty to reset their rover with roughly seven minutes left, the team navigated their rover back within 80 meters of the astronaut and had turned directly towards it before their rover capsized while attempting to roll up a particularly steep hill, at which point they chose to end their run.

June 7, 2008 @ 10:40 MDT: Oregon State had a dramatic performance in the first run of today's challenge, where teams are given 35 minutes to deliver supplies to a "distressed astronaut" in the field, based solely on the astronaut's last known GPS coordinates, from which the astronaut will have strayed an unspecified amount. After straying to one side of the field and nearly losing contact with base due to a large hill blocking transmission, the team steered their rover back towards the GPS fix, and with roughly five minutes left crested a hill and gained visual contact with the astronaut. They finished with 4 minutes and 3 seconds left, to the delight of both the crew and the judging team.

June 6, 2008 @ 15:15 MDT: Note that some new photos are going up on the team pages; check them regularly for updates. Due to bandwidth constraints with the satellite uplink from MDRS, we are currently limited to a small number of uploads; more will be made available as bandwidth allows.

June 6, 2008 @ 14:40 MDT: Thus far this morning, Iowa State, BYU, and Georgia Tech have competed in the construction task, while University of Nevada Reno, Oregon State University, and York University have run the geology event. Scores are pending, and will be released as soon as possible.
High winds are causing some difficulty with the equipment, as evidenced by the state of the tent set up outside of the hab for weighing in rovers:

June 6, 2008 @ 09:30 MDT: Team web pages are now available, and will be updated throughout the day with photos, competition information, and more.

June 5, 2008 @ 22:00 MDT: Mars Society crews arrived at MDRS today and prepared the habitat for tomorrow's competition. The work was made particularly difficult by rain that washed out the road from Hanksville, UT, which prevented volunteers from beginning work until this afternoon.

Teams were briefed about tomorrow's competition as they arrived in Hanksville today. The Georgia Tech and Oregon State teams have already weighed in their rovers successfully.

Watch this site Thursday through Saturday for video updates and more from the field!