Poles on the way to rover down the Mars!

A Polish invention for space exploration got credits in the USA. It is a Martian robotic vehicle – called MAGMA – designed and built jointly by a group of Polish mechanical engineering students took third position in a tight contest at the annual University Rover Challenge (URC) in Hanksville, Utah in early June 2010.
    
This groundbreaking intiative by Polish scholars still echoes in the world space exploration centres. It beat many professional projects e.g. from the USA and Canada, succumbing only to two projects, one from Oregon State University (winners) and the other from York University (runners-up). What makes this outcome even more glorious is the fact that the Polish team, representing Białystok University of Technology and the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, was the only group from Europe to take part in the URC.
    
The competition was divided into specific tasks for the rovers. The first stage consisted in fulfilling all technical requisites for the rovers to be eligible for the competition. The jury checked the material the vehicles were made of, the weight and dimmensions of the rovers, and the overall quality and workmenship. MAGMA came as the lightest contestant in its category, at 53 kilograms.
    
The ensuing tasks were also challenging as they included a site survey, delivering a First Aid kit to an injured astronaut, a remote fixing of a pice of equipment, and searching for “signs of life”. Points were awarded in relation to the speed of the performance, the technique and imagination of the teams.
    
The Polish team confidently impressed the juries in the last task in which the robots were to scoop a soil sample for examination. Of course, the soil was to be of a given weight and quantity. Some teams did not manage to succeed in individual tasks.
    
Poland's Magma Team, which took third place in the overall competition, plans on using its rover MAGMA as an educational tool in Poland. Thus students at Polish schools will be able to control the rover remotely via the Internet, gaining hands-on experience with robotics and remote-controlled space exploration vehicles.

More at www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-06/rover-challenge-2010-university-teams-test-mars-rovers-utah-desert