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Media Contact: Kevin Sloan

22 April 2009: Ten teams of college students from North America and Europe are hard at work, preparing to prove that their robotic creations are ready to work alongside future astronauts exploring the surface of Mars. The 2009 Mars Society University Rover Challenge (URC) will showcase the work of more than 100 students aiming for the top prize as their rovers compete in a difficult array of tasks likely to be encountered on future space missions. This third annual competition will be held May 28-30, 2009 at the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah. Media and sponsorship opportunities are available.

“Expect all sights to be set on Oregon State University, who pulled out an extremely close win in 2008, just narrowly edging out the 2007 champs from the University of Nevada, Reno,” said Kevin Sloan, Director of the University Rover Challenge. “There are a number of very talented and competitive returning teams, in addition to a few new entrants, who are all hungry to pull out a win. If last year was any indication, the one guarantee will be an incredibly impressive showing of technology from some truly gifted students.”

Joining the top 2008 contenders from Oregon State University and the University of Nevada, Reno, are:

• York University (Canada), 2008 3rd place winner
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Brigham Young University
• University of California, Los Angeles
• Iowa State University
• Warsaw University of Technology (Poland)
• University of Waterloo (Canada)
• Liceo de Arte y Tecnologia (Puerto Rico)
  

The multidisciplinary teams and their rovers will contend with the oppressive desert sun as they race to locate a distressed astronaut, repair a loose equipment panel, perform a remote survey of distant targets, and search for signs of a robust life form known as extremophiles.

For more information contact Kevin Sloan or visit www.marssociety.org/urc

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