The University of Saskatchewan’s Space Design Team (USST) topped 40 other teams at the 2015 European Rover Challenge, where teams were asked to design a rover able to handle conditions on Mars.
USST was comprised of four undergraduate students while other teams were made up of graduate students, according to team president Jack Fotheringham. The competition was held in Poland from Sept. 5-6.
The evaluation process included a design critique of the rover, a video presentation, and four physical challenges for each team’s rovers.
One of the challenges had rovers retrieve soil samples from a simulated Mars environment and analyze them.
“A big part of how we scored so many points was that our rover was 35 kg, and the max is 50 kg, which most teams [had],” Fotheringham said.
According to Fotheringham, the competition was not without challenges, as USST’s rover arrived a few days late. He said it was a struggle to retrieve the rover due to language barriers, and the competition was “serious, but a lot of fun.”
“We definitely didn’t expect [to win],” he said. “The Polish teams that compete there have blown the North American teams out of the water pretty consistently.”
Fotheringham said the team received funding from the university but relies primarily on personal donations and sponsorships.
“Another big component is firms that don’t fund us monetarily,” he said. “Avalon Wireless gave us a 5.8 gigahertz communication system, and that isn’t even on the market yet.”
The rover cost around $14,000 to build, but there were also other expenses like tools and equipment, Fortheringham said.
Fotheringham, an economics student, said the team is open to all students, but the majority of those involved are in engineering.
“The primary focus of our team is to build this Mars rover, but in the process it’s really to give engineering students practical experience,” Fotheringham said.
Technological innovations could come out the Mars rover, he added.
“We have some unique systems that as far as we know nobody else in the world has come up with and we’ve implemented them ourselves,” he said.
The team plans to compete in the University Rover Challenge in Utah next year.
“Things like this reaffirm that you don’t need to come from a big name school to do some pretty interesting things,” Fotheringham said.
