Competition Guide

Mars Rover

Design a Mars Rover with the ability to deliver an instrument and then collect an instrument. The rover shall be packaged in a container to be launched on a rocket to at least 1000 feet and less than 4000 feet. The rover in its container shall be deployed at an altitude of at least 1000 feet and descend at less than 15 feet/sec at landing. The container shall transmit telemetry at a 1 Hz rate containing altitude, acceleration, container temperature, battery voltage and current from launch to landing.

Once landed, the team shall locate the rover in its container and rocket and return both to the judge for inspection. The rover container must remain closed. The team shall open the container at the judges table when the judge is ready.

Teams will place their rover in an arena in the Mars base airlock. The team shall remotely operate their rover without viewing the field directly. The team shall locate the existing instrument package on the field, deliver the on-rover instrument. The team shall collect the existing instrument package and return to the Mars base airlock. All operations are to be completed within 15 minutes.

Deployable Sensor Payload Event

Design a payload and rocket to launch a PocketQute standard payload. Teams may choose either:
Option A: Using a commercial G rocket engine, the rocket must reach at least 1000 feet and no more than 1700 feet and have the payload PocketQube deploy from the rocket at apogee.
Option B: Design the rocket to reach as close to 2500 feet as possible, without exceeding 4000 feet, deploy the PocketQube at apogee, and use dual deploy recovery for the rocket. High power solid or hybrid rocket motors are allowed.

The ground station shall capture the data transmitted from the payload and display the sensor data in real time. The ground station shall calculate the altitude and descent rate based on the telemetry received. The video shall be played back for the judge after retrieving the payload and rocket.

The ground station shall capture the data transmitted from the payload and display the sensor data in real time. The ground station shall calculate the descent rate based on the telemetry received.

Bonus: Design the rocket to reach as close to 2500 feet as possible, deploy the PocketQube at apogee, and use dual deploy recovery for the rocket. High power solid or hybrid rocket motors are allowed. Bonus points awarded if all other score requirements are met.

Target Altitude Event

Design and build a rocket to reach 1100 feet using a commercial F motor. The vehicle must carry a commercial altimeter. The rocket shall be an upscaled version of the Estes Luna Bug rocket kit and include all the features of the kit such as the landing pads and fin design.
The vehicle must safely recover and be in condition to be flown again. The team must perform two successful flights of the same rocket meeting all the requirements out of three attempts. At least two attempts must meet the requirements or be disqualified. The team with the closest altitude to 1100 feet wins.
The rocket must be test flown before any qualification attempts. 3D printing is allowed.