Competition Guide

Mars Rover

Design a Mars Rover with the ability to deliver an instrument and 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 2000 feet. At peak altitude, deploy the rover in its container to descend at less than 15 feet/sec at landing. The container shall transmit telemetry at a 1 Hz rate containing altitude, acceleration, container temperature, and battery voltage 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 deliver an instrument package next to an existing instrument package that is placed at some random location which will require the team to locate the instrument. The team shall collect the existing instrument package and return to the Mars base airlock. All operations are to be completed within 10 minutes.

Deployable Sensor Payload Event

Design a payload and rocket to launch, using a commercial G rocket engine, to at least 1000 feet and no more than 1700 feet and have the payload PocketQube deploy from the rocket at peak altitude. The PocketQube form factor shall follow the PocketQube standard. The PocketQube shall be a 1P or 2P size. When installed in the rocket, the PocketQube shall be unpowered. When deployed from the rocket, the PocketQube shall power on and start sending telemetry at a minimum of 4 Hz. The telemetry shall include air pressure, PocketQube temperature, X,Y,Z rate gyro data, and GPS position data. The PocketQube shall include a video camera to record the horizon during descent

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.

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.