The Martian rover Kalman, constructed by students from AGH Space Systems, came fourth in the prestigious University Rover Challenge 2022 in a desert in Utah, USA. Its autonomous ride and science mission left the competition far behind. At the same time, in a different part of the United States, the Over the Dusty Moon Challenge concluded, organised by the Colorado School of Mines, which brought SpaceTeam AGH the second place.
During the last decisive day of competition at the Mars Desert Research Station, the Martian rover Kalman dived into the Science Mission task that relied on the unaided collection of designated soil samples by the robot and then scanning them for life signs. Kalman, using its on-board laboratory, completed the entire mission flawlessly, receiving a score of 100/100 points. The general classification also shows that no other team could beat the mark of 84/100 points. Due to these results, the AGH UST team made it to the forefront of the competition, simultaneously being the highest-ranked team in Europe. Finally, out of 36 teams that qualified to the final of the University Rover Challenge 2022, AGH Space Systems was placed fourth in the world and first in Europe. The AGH UST students managed to successfully outperform teams from Great Britain, Turkey, India, and Poland. Other universities from Poland that participated in the competition included: Wroclaw University of Technology, Kielce University of Technology, and Czestochowa University of Technology.