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Mars Civilization and Culture Task Force
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2008 University Rover Challenge Results
After two days of intense competition and hard work from all involved, Oregon State University captured first place in the 2008 University Rover Challenge tonight at the Mars Desert Research Station. They narrowly beat out the defending champions from the University of Nevada Reno. Following hot on their heels in third place was first-time entrant from the York University of Toronto, Canada.
URC champions Oregon State University thanking their supporters after being announced as winners.
"This year's Rover Challenge was a real success," said URC Director
Kevin Sloan. "Not only did we have more teams than last year, the
overall quality of the rovers was considerably higher this year. All of
the teams should be very proud of their rovers, and of their skills in
controlling them. The level of skill on display was amazing."
Oregon State was pushed over the top by being the only team to successfully locate the "distressed astronaut" during the navigation challenge. Georgia Tech and Iowa State University both turned in rousing performances in that challenge, and finished second and third in that event, respectively.
The BYU team, which was unable to compete in yesterday's contests due to problems booting their rover's operating system, fixed those problems overnight and brought their rover to the soil analysis task, where they impressed the judges.
"Their science payload was particularly amazing because of the way they used common household products," said judge Heather Smith. "They had an electric toothbrush to clean off rocks, a standard mechanical drill, and a common thermometer. It's just a shame that their drive train failed before they could finish the event."
The Challenge was particularly successful from a skill-building and educational point of view, as pointed out by Alan Spencer, guest judge from URC sponsor Raytheon.
"I was really impressed by the professionalism of all of the teams," he said. "These students are going to make really excellent engineers and scientists as they enter the workforce, and I think that they'll all be in better shape because of their participation this year."
The winners from Oregon State will receive free transportation to the 11th Annual Mars Society Convention, to be held August 14-17, 2008 in Boulder, CO. All of this year's URC entrants have been invited to give presentations about their rovers at the conference as well. Registration is available online for those interested in attending the Convention.
Finally, the Mars Society would like to thank all of the dedicated volunteers who made this year's URC possible. In addition to those mentioned above, this year's staff included veteran URC judges Hugh S. Gregory and John Barainca, as well as habitat engineer Emily Colvin, science event coordinator Andrew Duncan, Mars Society webmaster Alex Kirk, and habitat logistics coordinator Serena Le Fevre.
Oregon State was pushed over the top by being the only team to successfully locate the "distressed astronaut" during the navigation challenge. Georgia Tech and Iowa State University both turned in rousing performances in that challenge, and finished second and third in that event, respectively.
The BYU team, which was unable to compete in yesterday's contests due to problems booting their rover's operating system, fixed those problems overnight and brought their rover to the soil analysis task, where they impressed the judges.
"Their science payload was particularly amazing because of the way they used common household products," said judge Heather Smith. "They had an electric toothbrush to clean off rocks, a standard mechanical drill, and a common thermometer. It's just a shame that their drive train failed before they could finish the event."
The Challenge was particularly successful from a skill-building and educational point of view, as pointed out by Alan Spencer, guest judge from URC sponsor Raytheon.
"I was really impressed by the professionalism of all of the teams," he said. "These students are going to make really excellent engineers and scientists as they enter the workforce, and I think that they'll all be in better shape because of their participation this year."
The winners from Oregon State will receive free transportation to the 11th Annual Mars Society Convention, to be held August 14-17, 2008 in Boulder, CO. All of this year's URC entrants have been invited to give presentations about their rovers at the conference as well. Registration is available online for those interested in attending the Convention.
Finally, the Mars Society would like to thank all of the dedicated volunteers who made this year's URC possible. In addition to those mentioned above, this year's staff included veteran URC judges Hugh S. Gregory and John Barainca, as well as habitat engineer Emily Colvin, science event coordinator Andrew Duncan, Mars Society webmaster Alex Kirk, and habitat logistics coordinator Serena Le Fevre.
