Martian competitions under Chęcinami – Polish Radio

Mars imitates part of the area of ​​the Regional Centre for Science and Technology in Podzamcze Chęciny. – It is here that will face teams representing all the continents except Antarctica – says the originator of the idea of ​​competition, the president of the European Space Foundation Lukasz Wilczynski.

 

Teams have to perform five tasks. The first of these geological, played under a huge tent, lies in the fact that robots must dig into the ground and find the hidden sample. Another involves the repair of the reactor positioned on the ground solely by means of the manipulator. The teams will perform this task with only a camera placed on the rover. – There will be more important than time precision, they are not racing – explains Wilczynski.

 

As part of this year’s edition also planned to ride without instruments, machine vision, simulating a situation in which there was a failure camera as well as overcoming inclines. – For the competition we have also crater – adds organizer. A completely different task affected the scoring will be the presentation of the jeep. As noted Wilczynski, engineers will have to play the role of managers and PR people, who will have to convince the judges that their idea is the best.

 

– Whatever the future will do these young people who are struggling in the competition, it is of great importance for the development of their life experience. It is important for competition, but also science work together in teams – rated Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who in 1972 walked on the lunar surface as far as the last man. He recalled that the idea of ​​similar rivalry is carried out in the United States for many years.

 

Astronaut with interest watched the łazikom who came to this year’s ERC. Sam before 43 years ago used a lunar vehicle designed for the needs of the Apollo program by a team of Polish engineer Mieczyslaw Bekker.

 

As it turns out the ideas of the legendary constructor they can still be used in projects rovers. They took advantage of them students from the wheel of the space Warsaw University of Technology, where the rover “Ares 2″ uses similar solutions for design wheels of your vehicle. As said Thomas Alexander Teddy working on its construction “project is very mature in terms of engineering”. – It’s the next evolution of what we built in the previous year, both the US and European competitions, “- he explained. He pointed out that each event brings new thoughts on improvement of the structure.

 

One of the teams whose march longest way to Polish is a Colombian band “Robocol” the University de los Andes of Bogota. Their journey was not without adventures that questioned the participation in the competition. – Been lost our luggage, which contained the essential elements of the structure, but fortunately not long before the competition arrived to us – Eleen said Torres. He added her colleague Pablo Uriz “the whole team really depends on the presentation of the rover, which is the fruit of a long labor of many people from the university.”

 

In addition, NASA astronaut Dr. Harrison Schmitt also came to Podzamcze Robotics Head of the European Space Agency (ESA), Dr. Gianfranco Visentin and the specialist. robots from the Polytechnic of Turin prof. Giancarlo Genta.

 

PAP / fc