The AGH Space Systems team has had their final dry run out in the open field with Kalman. This is one of the key stages of their intense preparations for the finals of the most important international Martian rover competition, the University Rover Challenge (URC), which will take place at the turn of May and June in the desert in Utah (USA). The event is organised by The Mars Society, an organization supporting research, exploration, and colonisation of the Red Planet.
The final dry run before the competition took place in the Economic Activity Zone in Miękinia. The team prepared everything as if they were already travelling to the United States. The marketing and logistics section developed and coordinated the challenges, mirroring those awaiting the team during the actual competition: driving in difficult terrain, searching and moving objects, operating switches and tools, autonomous driving, extracting and analysing soil samples. Members of the team also played the role of the judges – knowing the jury’s criteria in awarding points, a knowledge acquired during their previous starts, they assessed each challenge accordingly. The dry run even provided for the real break lengths that occur during the actual competition. This is important, as each challenge requires the rover to be configured differently.
Photo: Miłosz Dubiel, KSAF AGH