NASA Sample Return Robot Challenge

[Mazon Del]

Greetings everybody!

This challenge is happening now! You can watch at ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc My team is Team Formicarum.

Enjoy!

[Kruleworld]

How did you do?

[Mazon Del]

As far as accomplishing the competition was concerned, not well. As far as continuing the development of our system, great! We drove off the platform, paused, scanned around, detected something (a stick, heh), and then drove up to it and stared at it.

At the time of the competition, that was all we were really capable of. However, what this represents to us is quite huge. The system is "complete" in the sense that with the exception of a few electrical tweaks and activating a few features that were not online on Friday, all we have to do is 12 months of testing! What the rover was doing (way more impressive behind the scenes) is what my programmer managed to cobble together in less than a week. I can only imagine what he'll get going with a full year of work.

If anybody has any questions about my team or the competition, feel free to ask!