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54-486: The aim of the University Rover Challenge is to encourage students to develop skills in robotics, improve the state-of-the-art in rovers, and work in multi-disciplinary teams with collaboration between scientists and engineers. The competition was launched in 2006 with competitions held annually every summer since 2007. The URC was first established in 2006 with the goal of promoting STEM education and inspiring

108-530: A Martian setting. "rovers shall be required to pick up and deliver objects in the field, and deliver assistance to astronauts" Rovers must pick up and deliver objects in the field, such as screwdrivers, hammers, toolboxes, rocks, etc. Rovers are required to traverse a wide variety of terrain—anything from soft sandy areas, to rock and boulder fields, to vertical drops. Teams are given approximate GPS coordinates for each pickup and delivery location, and potentially specific instructions for particular objects. Scoring

162-457: A button. Previous equipment tasks have included pumping air into an inflatable habitat, and cleaning solar panels. "Rovers shall be required to autonomously traverse between markers in this staged mission across moderately difficult terrain." Here, autonomous means without teleoperation—that is, without operators from the base station giving commands or user input. The rover must do all its decision-making on board. However, teleoperated scouting

216-569: A consequence, they favored funding alternatives that are often impractical, such as sponsorship deals, private philanthropy , and Martian bonds (on the basis of future resources and profits). Markley commented in 2005 that the Mars Society is somewhat similar to the Royal Society at its founding in the 16th century: "as much of a social club of enthusiasts as a professional scientific organization", with influences from science fiction . In

270-591: A discussion between Zubrin, Musk and the board members, the Mars Society announced the Translife Mission, later renamed to the Mars Gravity Biosatellite . The mission aimed to study the effect of Martian-level gravity on mice, with satellite construction supported by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Georgia Tech . In August 2008, the Mars Society announced

324-565: A few other people, who championed that terraforming is the end goal of Mars colonization. On the other side of the debate, the audience reminded them that for life on Mars, the act of terraforming will be similar to that of Native American genocide . The terms ' Lebensraum ' and ' manifest destiny ' used by the Zubrin side were prohibited in later conventions. The next few conventions organized additional debates between proponents of nuclear power/terraforming and environmentalists. In mid-2001,

378-477: A human might need to. (Such as equipment servicing and retrieval and delivery) In its first year, only 4 teams competed: University of Nevada Reno, Brigham Young University, Penn State University, and University of California Los Angeles. There were only 2 tasks, a Science Task, and a task to deploy a mock radio repeater in the field. URC spokesperson Kevin Sloan says they were unsure what to expect, but were "blown way by

432-408: A public presentation at the 4th Mars Society convention, Musk stated that the Mars Society might have a purpose in his efforts. By April 2002, Musk had abandoned the temporary foundation entirely; instead, he founded SpaceX to build a low-cost rocket and invited aerospace engineers whom he had met at Mars Society-sponsored trips. In the following years, Musk kept in contact with the Mars Society, as

486-579: A science fiction researcher, pointed out that Zubrin used his president of the Mars Society position to espouse his own views on how human missions to Mars should be carried out. To make the Mars Direct plan appealing to the American public, he compared Mars to the Great American Frontier and the colonization of Mars as a way to resolve social stagnation and " Hobbesian despair " on Earth. Mars would be

540-793: A spacecraft launching directly from the Earth's surface, featuring a mock propulsion module, heat shield and landing engines. As well as research, the Mars Society organizes the Rover Challenge Series, a group of annual university competitions for making mock Martian rovers . Around May and June each year, the three-day University Rover Challenge takes place in Utah's desert near the MDRS where teams compete in exploration tasks. The rover's operators must only use sensor data for navigation, similar to actual Martian rovers. Similar regional competitions that belong to

594-538: A successor to the prior Case for Mars conventions. Some of those invited were from the Mars Underground or had written to Zubrin about The Case For Mars . The Mars Society's founding convention in August 1998 emphasized its focus on the Mars Direct plan and efforts of lobbying the government, holding that there was no technical reason that would prevent a human mission to Mars within a decade. The first convention saw

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648-942: A time. In 2013 the Site Survey task was replaced with Terrain Traversing, which tested rovers capability of navigating through difficult terrain. 2016 introduced a formal down-selection process, including a CDR (Critical Design Review) which took the place of the Presentation task, and a semi-finals round of competition. The next year, 2017, replaced Astronaut Assistance with Extreme Retrieval and Delivery (a mix of astronaut assistance and terrain traversing), Sample Return with Science Cache, and Terrain Traversing with Autonomous Traversal, an entirely new challenge which explicitly required teams to implement autonomous behavior on their rovers. Finally, 2018 and 2019 have seen this task structure preserved, with increases in difficulty and complexity. Notably,

702-538: A way to give birth to an ideal society. In effect, Markley commented, Zubrin has created an "interplanetary vision of manifest destiny ". Most members of the Mars Society agreed with the less extreme version of Zubrin's ideal, in that colonizing Mars is critical for preventing a dystopian future for humankind . Oliver Morton commented in 2003 that the Mars Society is a fundamentally "utopian and escapist organization". He observed that many Mars Society convention participants were unhappy with government space programs. As

756-483: A way, he continued, the Mars Direct plan provided a grand vision for future Martian endeavors to follow and the Mars Society is a platform for exploring the implications of Mars colonization. The forerunner of the Mars Society was a small network of space enthusiasts colloquially known as the Mars Underground, which emerged around 1978. The members of this network were frustrated by the U.S. administration's lack of attention to Mars exploration. Most members belonging to

810-452: A written report and a short video describing and demonstrating the design and capabilities of the rover to perform the required tasks, scientific plan, and team management. "The goal is to conduct in-situ analysis with the rover, including life detection testing of samples" Teams must investigate multiple sites of biological interest, using instruments and methods of their choice, where they must conduct analysis of samples entirely on board

864-454: Is allowed in the earlier stages. The markers in this task are tennis balls and approximate GPS coordinates given to teams. As the stages get more difficult, the GPS coordinates will become increasingly vague and there will be more obstacles between the tennis balls, requiring obstacle avoidance and autonomous route finding. In addition, teleoperated scouting is allowed in the earlier stages, but not in

918-424: Is based on teams' ability to pick up and deliver objects to their correct locations. "Rovers shall be required to perform several dexterous operations on a mock-up equipment system." Possible operations outlined in the rules for 2019 include: 2017 required rovers to tow a wagon carrying a fuel canister to a generator, fill up the fuel tank, swap the regulator on gas cylinders, and start the generator by pressing

972-529: Is evident in his presentation of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2008, his acceptance of the Mars Pioneer Award from the society in 2012 and his presentation at the society's 2020 convention. After the first convention, the Mars Society decided to construct a Mars analog facility named Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island , Nunavut , Canada. The FMARS is the second Mars analog facility in

1026-785: Is the largest and oldest institution of higher education in Częstochowa , Poland . All faculties of the university have the right to grant doctoral degrees (currently over 300 post-graduate students), and three of them also offer PhD habilitation . The university was founded in 1949 as the School of Engineering ( Szkoła Inżynierska ). In 1955, the name was changed to the current Politechnika Częstochowska . The university employs over 1,400 staff, including 840 academic teachers, out of whom 165 are independent scientific researchers. There are around 12,000 students, studying 90 courses within 19 fields of study, full-time and part-time. For over 9 years

1080-507: The 2009 Augustine Commission , a panel set up by the Obama administration to outline the future of the U.S. space program, Zubrin advocated initiating a lean human Mars program in a similar manner to Mars Direct. The committee was indifferent to the testimony; in the final report, the commission concluded that a human Mars mission in general would "demand decades of investment and carry considerable safety risk to humans". In 2005, Robert Markley ,

1134-985: The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) and the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS). The FMARS is located on Devon Island in Canada and near the Haughton impact crater , above the 75th parallel north where the island is uninhabited and barren. The MDRS is located near Hanksville, Utah, where the habitat is isolated from civilization. Both stations' locations are chosen for the landscape similarities with Mars. Because these stations are meant for research, both FMARS and MDRS are closed to public visits. These stations are staffed by volunteers with degrees in planetary science , geology , and engineering . The Mars Society has plans to build additional analog stations. The Euro-MARS, operated by

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1188-598: The Founding Declaration of the Mars Society . The Mars Society's founder and current president is Robert Zubrin . Notable current and former members of the organization include Buzz Aldrin , Elon Musk , Gregory Benford and James Cameron . The society is a member of the Alliance for Space Development and has chapters in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, and many other countries. Since its foundation in 1998,

1242-617: The 2018 competition, making 6 consecutive years Poland has been represented on the podium. Some teams have been competed for many years in a row. Notably the team from Brigham Young University is the only team to have participated in every competition from 2006 to 2018, consistently placing in the top 5. That team is funded primarily by the Mechanical Engineering , Electrical Engineering and Physics departments at BYU. Specific scenario details change each year as teams master given tasks and to encourage flexibility in designs and improve

1296-689: The 2019 Science task requires detection of life aboard the rover, whereas in 2018 teams could bring back samples to conduct tests at the base. The number and diversity of teams has also grown significantly over the competition's lifespan. In 2018, 95 teams representing 10 different countries registered, 36 of which were selected to compete. Teams from the US generally make up the majority, but teams from Canada, Poland, and in more recent years, India, are also strongly represented. Poland in particular, fielding their first team in 2009, has been particularly competitive. A Polish team from Czestochowa University of Technology won

1350-452: The Mars Direct plan, gave philosophical arguments for it and rebutted criticisms of the plan. The Mars Society was founded by Zubrin on 13 August 1998 during the Mars Society's first convention in Boulder, Colorado , the same place where the first Case for Mars convention took place 17 years earlier. With a duration of four days, the convention was attended by 750 persons and can be seen as

1404-640: The Mars Society and 18 other space-related organizations. The donation money came from a seat auction in that New Shepard flight. The donation vastly exceeded the Mars Society annual revenue, which was reported to be less than $ 400,000 in a filing with the Internal Revenue Service. The Mars Society's premier project is the Mars Analog Research Station Program. The program aims to further the understanding of Mars missions' technical and human factors via its two Mars analog habitats :

1458-455: The Mars Society has organized events and research activities. It has hosted its annual International Mars Society Convention and operated research projects such as the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station and the Mars Desert Research Station , both using Mars analog habitats . Both of the stations are placed in remote locations for research. Crew members perform simulated extravehicular activities , carry out research assignments and reside at

1512-409: The Mars Society received a US$ 5,000 check from Elon Musk at a fundraiser event. After briefly researching Mars concepts and missions, Musk joined the Mars Society's board of directors and gave it US$ 100,000 . In August 2001, Musk left the Mars Society after a meeting with its members and established a temporary foundation for his publicity projects, despite pleas for collaboration from Zubrin. In

1566-678: The Mars Society's European chapter, was intended to have three decks and more extensive facilities. However, during transport from the United Kingdom to the deploying location at Krafla, Iceland , the Euro-MARS sustained irreparable damage. It was reported in 2017 that Euro-MARS was back at the planning phase, but no further updates about the station are available. The Mars Society is also planning to build another Mars analog station in Arkaroola , Australia, as of October 2022. The station would replicate

1620-796: The Rover Challenge Series include the European Rover Challenge , the Canadian International Rover Challenge and the Indian Rover Challenge. MarsVR Project is a virtual reality program that simulates MDRS and terrain one square mile around the base. The program was made in collaboration with a local virtual reality company. MarsVR is used to train MDRS's crews by simulating the use of spacesuits, airlocks, rovers and activities such as cooking. The software can also simulate playing sports on Mars such as soccer and mountaineering . The exploration portion of MarsVR

1674-433: The University Rover Challenge (US$ 46,500). The Mars Society's Taxpayer Identification Number is 31-1585646. Many of the Mars Society's members believe that a human mission to Mars is achievable within a decade (as laid out in Zubrin's Mars Direct) and such a mission would lay the foundation for the colonization of Mars . The Mars Direct philosophy has permeated through the society's lobbying efforts. During testimony to

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1728-424: The base and presenting to the judges on its scientific significance. Site survey involved analysis of a site from potentially far away. Equipment servicing most notably required teams to plug in a 3-prong plug into an outlet, and emergency navigation was a timed challenge in which rovers were to locate astronauts as fast as possible. In addition to these tasks teams scored points on a presentation they gave to judges on

1782-476: The capabilities of the rovers each year. Rovers are required to perform tele-operated or autonomous tasks that would assist astronauts in the field. Tele-operated tasks are performed from control stations with no direct view of the rover, only what can be determined via video and data links from the rover or sensors deployed by the rover. It is assumed the operators are also on Mars so there is no time-delay in communications. For 2019 tasks include: Teams must submit

1836-425: The design of their rover. The following two years saw tweaks in the content of tasks to make them increasingly challenging, but the spirit of each task remained the same. For example, in 2012, the emergency navigation task was designed such that in order to reach some of the astronauts rovers would need to pass into areas where they would lose communication with their operators and thus need to operate autonomously for

1890-511: The group were researchers and graduate students, which included Chris McKay , Penelope Boston , Tom Meyer , Carol Stoker , and Carter Emmart . This is part of the reason some Mars Society members held environmentalism and counterculture ideals . In April 1981, the Mars Underground organized the first Case for Mars convention about Mars exploration at the University of Colorado . The Case for Mars conventions were held every three years until

1944-418: The initial proposal. At the Mars Society's 2015 convention, a debate was organized between two representatives of Mars One (CEO Bas Lansdorp and Barry Finger ) and two researchers from MIT (Sydney Do and Andrew Owens). Mars One, a now-defunct non-profit organization founded in 2011, aimed to establish a human settlement on Mars through a one-way mission called Mars to Stay . The MIT researchers criticized

1998-406: The later ones. A panel of judges conducts the judging, and this panel changes from year to year. Some effort is made to have a diversity of experience on the judging team, and past judges have included persons with professional experience as: systems engineers, biologists, roboticists, industrial designers, scientists and professors of varied fields. Judges are volunteers. Teams raise the money for

2052-670: The need for dangerous space rendezvous or an expensive space station . A modified Mars Direct plan (called NASA Design Reference Mission 3.0 ) was budgeted by NASA at US$ 20 billion ; less than one-twentieth the cost of the Mars mission plan in NASA's Space Exploration Initiative ( US$ 250–500 billion ). In 1996, Zubrin published The Case For Mars , the same year as the last Case for Mars convention took place. The book criticized prior Mars exploration mission proposals for being too costly and complicated, proposed an alternative mission plan based on

2106-571: The next Mars analog habitat, called the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS). In December 2001, the habitat's construction near Hanksville, Utah , was completed. From 2001 to 2005, Mars mission simulations in FMARS were around 2–8 weeks long and consisted of ten rotated crews. The first four-month-long mock mission took place in 2007, which revealed cultural conflicts and inadequate coping strategies. Shorter missions were carried out in 2009 and 2013, before another long-duration mission called Mars 160

2160-494: The next generation of space explorers. Since its inception, the competition has grown in scale and significance, attracting teams from universities and institutions worldwide. The idea behind the URC's creation is that the kinds of rovers teams are building would assist astronauts in the field, controlled remotely by another astronaut. This imagined use case drives the competition's emphasis on teleoperation and ability to perform tasks that

2214-521: The plan as infeasible and suicidal. According to Dwayne A. Day from The Space Review , the MIT team won the debate by making specific and realistic arguments. He also noted that the popularity of Mars One had dwarfed that of the Mars Society, stating that the perceived absurdness of Mars One may potentially be detrimental to the Mars Society's reputation. In 2021, around a week before the first crewed New Shepard mission , Blue Origin donated US$ 1 million to

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2268-554: The project TEMPO after a preliminary selection of proposals. TEMPO was conceived as a system of two CubeSats attached to a tether and spun with carbon dioxide -powered thrusters, aimed to demonstrate rotational artificial gravity system in space. Neither of these proposals were built: the Mars Gravity Biosatellite was canceled in June 2009 due to a lack of funding and no further development of TEMPO has been reported since

2322-408: The quality". University of Nevada Reno won that year, winning a $ 5000 cash prize, which was reduced to $ 1000 in subsequent years. Since its inception in 2006, with 4 US teams, the competition has grown substantially, with 95 teams from 12 countries in 2018, and a total of 35 rovers selected to compete, their teams totaling more than 500 students. The tasks have also undergone significant changes over

2376-449: The rover. The goal of the task is to determine the presence or absence of life, either extinct or extant, at designated sites. After the 20–30 minutes of investigation time, teams must also prepare a short presentation to give to the judges on-site, which presents their results, analysis, and conclusions. Analysis is expected to be relevant to the setting on Earth while demonstrating an understanding of how these observations would translate to

2430-496: The rovers themselves, through their university and/or outside sponsors. The competition itself is funded in part by the Mars Society , Protocase Inc, (a custom parts manufacturer, which offers teams credit and discounts for all parts manufactured at Protocase), Honeybee Robotics , and Microsoft . Cz%C4%99stochowa University of Technology Częstochowa University of Technology ( Polish : Politechnika Częstochowska, PCz )

2484-425: The signing of the Founding Declaration of the Mars Society which outlined primary goals for the society, amidst rifts between Mars Society members' Martian ideals. On the second day of the convention, there was an intense debate about the ethics of Mars terraforming , which science writer Oliver Morton described as 'rancorous'. The moderator of the debate was Chris McKay. On one side of the debate were Zubrin and

2538-471: The sixth and final one in 1996. At the now-defunct aerospace company Martin Marietta , Robert Zubrin – who had attended the third Case for Mars convention in 1987 – and engineer David Baker developed the human Mars mission plan, titled Mars Direct . They published their plan for NASA and the public to review in early 1990. The core tenet of the Mars Direct plan is to use existing technologies and eliminate

2592-546: The society organizes the annual International Mars Society Convention, with presentations primarily about Mars exploration and colonization. In the 2019 filing to the Internal Revenue Service , the Mars Society reported to receive around US$ 400,000 in donations per year. Some noteworthy expenses include the annual Mars Society convention (US$ 58,800), the Mars Desert Research Station (US$ 200,000), and

2646-636: The station on strictly rationed supplies. The organization also hosts a college robotics competition in Utah called the University Rover Challenge . The Mars Society is a 501(c)(3) -eligible nonprofit organization that is funded by donations and operated by volunteers. Membership to the Mars Society is available to all on payment of a small fee. The society's aims are garnering public support for human Mars missions, lobbying government and space agencies , and verifying mission proposals via Mars analog habitats . These goals were set out in

2700-481: The university is home to an academic choir Collegium Cantorum and an Academic Sports Association ( Akademicki Związek Sportowy ) with 13 different sports divisions. Currently there are 6 faculties ( wydział ): 50°49′16″N 19°06′42″E  /  50.82111°N 19.11167°E  / 50.82111; 19.11167 Mars Society The Mars Society is a nonprofit organization that advocates for human exploration and colonization of Mars . It

2754-642: The world; the first one is the Haughton–Mars Project . Some of FMARS's construction cost was paid by the Mars Society and the Haughton–Mars Project team. Other funding came from commercial sponsorship, such as with the Discovery Channel . FMARS was first occupied during a test run in July and August 2000. It began the first simulated mission around 2001. The money donated by Elon Musk was spent on

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2808-437: The years, evolving from the 2 simple tasks of the first year to the 4 robust tasks of 2019, and continuing to get more challenging every year. Detailed information about years 2007 - 2009 is unavailable, but by 2010 there were 4 tasks: Sample Return, Site Survey, Equipment Servicing, and Emergency Navigation. In its 2010 incarnation, sample return involved choosing a sample to bring back with the rover, then doing analysis on it at

2862-423: Was conducted in 2017, in collaboration with the MDRS. The crew stayed in MDRS for eighty days before being transferred to FMARS, rotating the crew every month. As of April 2020, the MDRS had hosted nineteen field seasons (one per year) totaling 236 crews, with each crew consisting of six or seven members. The society also formulated plans to launch space-based experiments, which never materialized. In 2001, after

2916-451: Was founded by Robert Zubrin in 1998 and its principles are based on Zubrin's Mars Direct philosophy, which aims to make human missions to Mars as feasible as possible. The Mars Society generates interest in the Mars program by garnering support from the public and through lobbying . Many current and former Mars Society members are influential in the wider spaceflight community, such as Buzz Aldrin and Elon Musk . Since its founding,

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