How this collegiate Mars rover team from Missouri tries to 'inspire the next generations'

The Missouri University of Science and Technology's Mars Rover Design Team ranked third in the world in an international competition June 1-4 in Utah.

The rover, Prometheus, received 370.71 points. Coming in second was the Monash Nova Rover from Monash University in Australia. First-place finisher was the Michigan Mars Rover Team from the University of Michigan.

It was the first in-person competition since 2019. The University Rover Challenge took place at the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, Utah.

"We're incredibly proud of our team," said Keyton Rovka, a senior engineering management major. "It's absolutely a great achievement."

Proud, though not satisfied, he said.

"We left a lot of points on the table," Rovka said. "We can do better. We're very proud. but we're looking forward to building an even better rover next year."

The team has done it before, ranking No. 1 in 2017. The team has been in the top five nine of the 10 years it has competed.

"A lot of people are incredibly excited to get started and approach these difficulties head on," said Max Ryan, a junior majoring in electrical engineering.

The competition was designed to have the most difficult challenges, Rovka said.

Prometheus had the highest score, 94 out of 100 points for design review. The design review included a video submitted to explain the rover's capabilities, the students said.

The team tied for first in equipment servicing. It was required to switch out software in less than 10 minutes to reconfigure it to a different task.

It also tied for first in extreme retrieval and delivery.

There are around 40 members of the team of undergraduate students. The Mars Rover Design Team is a registered student organization at S&T.

While rovers on the red planet cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, their rover and  others in the competition cost around $18,000. The team raised the money from selling merchandise and other fundraisers and some grants, Rovka said.

"Our rover is built for a fraction of the price" of a NASA rover Rovka said.

Both said until people colonize Mars, rovers will remain the best option for exploring it.

They are designing what future rovers could be, Ryan said.

And both said they would gladly travel to Mars.

"I would love the opportunity to live on Mars," Ryan said.

"To be able to go to Mars is a dream of mine," Rovka said.

While other schools may make minor tweaks to rovers from year to year, the S&T team rebuilds its rover from the ground up each year.

"We keep the best parts of previous rovers, what worked well," Rovka said. "Then we redesign and rebuild everything."

The team includes mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and other students with a variety of other skills, with every member's skills contributing to the rover's success, Ryan said.

"An environment like that in college is really something special," Ryan said.

They are undergraduate students volunteering their time. Many other teams are graduate students.

The students talked about the team's culture.

"We're giving back to the world and inspiring the next generations," Rovka said. "It's bigger than the project."

Roger McKinney is the education reporter for the Tribune. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri S&T Mars rover team shines in tough international challenge