Category Archives: Contests and Games

Activism, Contests and Games, Space Systems

European Rover Challenge 2014

Here’s an announcement from PlanetPR:

European Rover Challenge 2014

Europe approaching Mars

The European Rover Challenge 2014, an international Mars rover contest, will be held in Poland in September. It will be accompanied by a Convention attended by world class space researchers, as well as a Science Picnic. The trio of events is hosted together thanks to the hospitality of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship.

The hosting of ERC 2014 in Poland was first announced in autumn, at the European Mars Society Convention in Paris. The Challenge will be held at the Regional Science-Technology Centre in Podzamcze (near Chęciny), from September 5th to 7th. Detailed information can be found on the Challenge website: www.roverchallenge.eu.

ERC2014

“Simultaneously with the Challenge, we’ll host an European Mars Conference on the topic ‘Humans in Space’, intended for experts who share the vision of a manned flight to Mars, as well as for other professionals (e.g. members of the space industry, the medical industry, academics from other fields), and entrepreneurs. Everyone will also have a chance to see many different experiments and scientific demonstrations in the tents of the nearby Science Picnic. There’ll be something for audiences of all ages and tastes.” – says Mateusz Józefowicz, Chairman of Mars Society Polska, the ERC organizers.

The main event, the Challenge involving analogues of Mars rovers, is a competition for teams of students and recent graduates of higher education institutions, who, with the help of their faculty, try to first design and build and then, in September, field the best rover. The core of the Challenge are four practical tasks: a science task involving obtaining and analyzing samples, a “blind” navigation task, in which the team will have to guide the rover to a certain destination using just GPS coordinates and no camera input, and two engineering tasks that will require using and repairing equipment. During all of the tasks, the teams will have to control their rovers without seeing them directly.

“The ERC is a European variation of the prestigious University Rover Challenge, organized in the USA by The Mars Society – a contest that has seen a number of successful Polish teams.” – explains Adam Jarubas, the Marshall of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. “We are very happy that this year the students can compete in Poland, at our Regional Science-Technology Centre. The project fits right into our Regional Innovation Strategy.” – he adds.

The European Rover Challenge 2014 is organized by Mars Society Polska, in cooperation with Planet PR, the Marshal Office of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, the Regional Science-Technology Centre in Podzamcze near Chęciny,  ABM Space Education, and the Austrian Space Forum.

ERC logo

Contests and Games, General, SpaceCasts

Video – Spacevidcast 7.05: Google Lunar X PRIZE Milestones

Spacevidcast posts the video of their latest live program: Google Lunar X PRIZE Milestones – 7.05 – Spacevidcast –

In this live show we talk about the all new milestones created for the Google Lunar X PRIZE participants.

Spacevidcast is a weekly show all about space and the comsos. Covering major events from NASA, ESA, JAXA, Roscosmos, SpaceX and more, Spacevidcast is your weekly news and views show for every space geek! Featuring monthly live shows and weekly cosmic updates, get your Space Geek on right here! Don’t forget to subscribe.

Activism, Contests and Games, Space participation

31 student teams to compete in Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge

The Mars Society gets a good response to their University Rover Challenge contest:

URC Registration Sets New Record with 31 Student Teams Set to Compete

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that 31 student teams from six countries and four continents have officially registered for the 2014 University Rover Challenge (URC), setting a new participation record for the annual international rover competition. Countries represented this year include the United States, India, Egypt, Poland, Canada and Bangladesh.

A sampling of some of the participating universities include: Cornell University, Warsaw University of Technology, Yale University, Cairo University, Częstochowa University of Technology, University of Michigan, Military Institute of Science & Technology and York University. To view the full list of schools involved in the URC, please click here.

Scheduled for May 29-31, 2014, the URC is the world’s premier robotics competition for college students.  Held annually in the desert of southern Utah, URC challenges student teams to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will one day work alongside astronauts exploring the Red Planet. Launched in 2006, the URC consistently draws an international field of the most talented and promising science, engineering and computer science students.

“In 2013, we shattered every previous URC milestone and had our winning team from Bialystok University of Technology score an almost unthinkable 493 points out of 500.  For 2014 our registered field has more than doubled over last year, and we are eager to welcome many new teams to the competition.  Everybody involved in the competition is getting excited. 2014 is going to be an incredible year for URC!”, said URC Director Kevin Sloan.

To view regular updates about the URC competition, please visit our web site or Facebook page.

Contests and Games, Mars, Space Systems

Inspiration Mars Int. Student Design Competition draws big worldwide response

An announcement from the The Mars Society:

Massive Worldwide Response to Inspiration Mars Student Design Contest

The Mars Society’s Inspiration Mars International Student Design Competition has drawn a massive worldwide response. As of the January 31, 2014 deadline, letters of intent to compete have been received from 38 teams representing 56 universities in 15 countries.

Nations represented include the United States, Canada, Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Poland, Mauritius, India, Bangladesh, Japan and Colombia.

654319-image-synthese-voyage-concu-mAn early concept for the Inspiration Mars transport system.

A sampling of some of the institutions signed up to participate include: John Hopkins University, St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University, Ohio State University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Notre Dame, Indira Gandhi National Open University, York University, International Space University, Purdue University, Islamic University of Technology, University of Stuttgart, Keio University, and University of Glasgow. To view a complete list of participating schools, please click here.

The Inspiration Mars International Student Design Competition was officially announced during the 16th Annual International Mars Society Convention held in Boulder, Colorado in August 2013. The contest is open to university engineering student teams from around the world.

Inspiration Mars Executive Director Dennis Tito and Program Manager Taber MacCallum were present for the announcement. “Inspiration Mars is looking for the most creative ideas from engineers all over the world,” said Tito at that time. “Furthermore, we want to engage the explorers of tomorrow with a real and exciting mission, and demonstrate what a powerful force space exploration can be in inspiring young people to develop their talent. This contest will accomplish both of those objectives.”

Commenting on the global response to the competition, Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin said, “This contest is providing a tremendous opportunity for legions of young engineers to directly contribute their talent to this breakthrough project to open the space frontier. From what we are seeing right now, there are many ready to take up that challenge.  Inspiration Mars said they wanted to show that space exploration can inspire youth to develop their talent. Well, they have delivered. The call has been sounded, and from all over the world, young people have answered. Just imagine what the effect would be on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education if a full-scale program to explore and settle the Red Planet were set in motion. Consider what the vast number of new young scientists, engineers, investors, medical researchers and technology entrepreneurs resulting from such an inspiring challenge could do to advance humanity.”

The requirement of the Inspiration Mars International Student Design Competition is to design a two-person Mars flyby mission for 2018 as cheaply, safely and simply as possible. All other design variables are open.

Alumni, professors and other university staff may participate in the contest as well, but the teams must be predominantly composed of and led by university students. All competition presentations must be completed exclusively by students. Teams will be required to submit their design reports of no more than 50 pages in writing by March 15, 2014. From there, a down-select will occur with the top ten finalist teams invited to present and defend their designs before a panel of six judges chosen (two each) by the Mars Society, Inspiration Mars and NASA. The presentations will take place during a public event at NASA Ames Research Center in April 2014.

Convention 2013 (Martian flag)_500x333Robert Zubrin of the Mars Society, Taber MacCallum of
Paragon Space Development Corp., and Dennis Tito who
is funding Inspiration Mars.

The first place team will receive a prize of $10,000, an all-expenses paid trip to the 2014 International Mars Society Convention to be held August 7-10 in Houston, Texas and a trophy to be presented by Dennis Tito at that event. Prizes of $5,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 will also be awarded for second through fifth place.

For more details about the Mars Society and the Inspiration Mars International Student Design Competition, please visit our web site at: www.marssociety.org.

Contests and Games, Education, Simulators

Space Pioneer – updates and new video

I wrote here previously about the Kickstarter campaign to fund development of the game Space Pioneer by Space Enigma Studios. Since then they have posted Updates on the project and they have a new video as well: