Fall 2025 Space Teams University - Mars Autonomous Rover Rally - Rules & Info #106
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Space Teams PRO v0.39.6 is uploaded, and includes the changes needed for the competition sim to work. We have updated the setup instructions above. We recommend getting the example client working before starting on your own solution, which can either be modifying the Please let us know about any setup issues in https://github.com/SimDynamX/SpaceTeamsPRO/discussions/categories/2025-mars-autonomous-rover-rally-q-a |
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For the image client, you may additionally need to run the command here in an admin powershell terminal: https://github.com/SimDynamX/STU3-Sim/blob/main/firewall_except.ps1 |
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See known issue causing Compute_Server crashes, and a workaround: #123 |
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Fixed; uploading now. |
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Download latest Space Teams (v0.39.7) from spaceteamspro.com to resolve the crashing issue. |
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v0.39.8 is now available; this version should work fine for the competition as well and the demo simulations are functioning again. It is not necessary to upgrade from 0.39.7. |
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We had previously announced we would publish another set of camera and rover details on Oct 28th. It is taking a bit longer to assemble, we are sorry for the delay. |
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In the meantime, if you have specific questions, please ask them here or in the Q&A discussions category and we can get you a quick answer. Other competitors probably have the same question! |
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I have finished both the Terrain Data and Rover Specs info pages. Please let us know either in the comments section of either of these or in another Q&A post if you would like to know something we didn't document yet. Still to come is the |
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I've added a Camera Specs section to the Rover Specs page. |
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For the live sessions today and on, we will likely have time to help teams more directly, such as troubleshooting with screensharing. |
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The qualification submission link has been added: https://forms.gle/fsi2UKVgDsAABZ6d7 |
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A team has asked us for assistance, and we're opening the zoom call for other teams to observe and then possibly also get direct help from us. The meeting starts 1 hour from now, and continues for 2 hours. Please let us know if you are running into issues that can't be easily resolved by assistance through the Q&A questions. Jakubik, Connor R is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Meeting ID: 942 6131 1620 One tap mobile Join by SIP Join instructions |
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There is a little over 10 hours remaining to submit your qualification submission! Even if your team has not made much progress in setting up and running the sim, we encourage you to make an attempt and submit so you are eligible for prizes! This is very much a "completion grade" standard for the qualification and it shouldn't take very long to do the setup. |
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I have a few questions:
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Yes, the depth is at 5 fps. This is to emulate a LIDAR system which needs to scan the whole scene to get the data. The depth value is in centimeters. Also, the per-pixel depth accuracy is +-5mm. |
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The camera-fps reduction command changes are in on STU3-Sim repo, and also require this set of changes in SpaceTeamsROS: |
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Simulation stopped; reason: [10054] Existing Platform data connection to locally-running Compute_Server was forcibly closed; this could mean Compute_Server crashed. Check the latest-modified file in the Compute_Server/Logs folder for more details. Would you like to return to the main menu? "No" quits the application. this is showing when i was trying to open the simulation..in both sim_competition_simconf and sim_manual_driving_simconf, anyone facing this issue? how to resolve |
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Can you send the contents of your Compute_Server/Logs folder? The Sim_SIM_COMPETITION.log is the first thing to check. |
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Also, using v0.40.1 would make the debugging process easier. It takes a bit to install though so I would understand if you want to stay on a previous version. |
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thank you sir, the program automatically fixed after few hours, now its working fine! |
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Also in case you missed this in the live session on Monday, the final submission link and leaderboard link were added to this page 2 days ago. |
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Am I allowed to change the SIM_COMPETITION.simconf to get better depth FPS? |
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5 fps is the highest FPS for the depth. You can reduce it but you can't increase it |
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Thank you to those who submitted! We will be validating the scores over the next two weeks. This process includes reviews of the videos, code, and logs. We will be announcing the prize winners on December 5th. In the meantime, we will also set up the pages for our ongoing public leaderboard. We encourage everybody, not just the competitors, to continue refining your solution and setting new records! Your trial license will last you for a while, then there are a few options for how to continue using Space Teams PRO. Also, please reach out to us if you are interested in a research collaboration that uses this simulation environment or Space Teams PRO more directly! Our Robotics team in the ASTRO Lab at Texas A&M University will be continuing to experiment with this simulation and others. |
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I have now updated the competition leaderboard with the full final results. We also now have our Ongoing Leaderboard available here, and we will soon post instructions on how anyone can continue submitting simulation-runs and appear on that leaderboard! Here is a copy of the winner announcement email! Congratulations for participating in the Mars Autonomous Rover Rally Design Competition. Many of you did some great work and we've enjoyed seeing your algorithms in action! Thank you for all your submissions, and now it comes down to the winning teams. We will not have a general webcast because we have so many time zones involved. So, we will make the announcement right here and now. We have posted the videos of the winning designs, and we hope to get the winning teams to also send us a short video of themselves explaining their strategy. Everyone on teams that submitted a working design will also receive a certificate from NASA Texas Space Grant for their outstanding efforts to develop a robust autonomous rover for Mars exploration. Now to the winning teams..... All of these teams managed to reach all or most of the waypoints in record time - huge congrats and well done! Here are the team statistics....
The entire competition and prizes are sponsored by NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium and Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. Your development and execution team is from the ASTRO Lab, directed by Dr Greg Chamitoff. STEMX365 is one of our prize sponsors and was also instrumental in engaging student teams around the world, and especially in Bangladesh (which gave us many of our winning teams!) SimDynamX is also a prize sponsor and leads commercial development and applications for Space Teams PRO. Congratulations to all teams for a great competition. Checkout the winning team videos on our Youtube page here…. Winning Sim Recordings - STU 3 Mars Autonomous Rover Rally Thank you for participating in the Mars Autonomous Rover Rally Design Challenge. More design challenges are on the way for 2026! We welcome your feedback and input. Please take a minute to fill out our brief survey found here: Mars Rover Survey - Share Your Thoughts with Us |
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This competition has ended, but there is a public ongoing leaderboard available for anyone to try the challenge! See this comment for more details.
If there is conflicting info about the competition somewhere else, this page is the authoritative source.
Changelog:
2025/11/17Final submission link added, leaderboard link added2025/11/03Submission requirements tweaked, qualification submission link added2025/10/22SpaceTeamsPRO v0.39.6 is uploaded, ready for the competition2025/10/22Competitor setup updated.2025/10/18Initial info filled.2025/08/20Newly created.Please subscribe for notifications on this page! ➡️➡️➡️
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COMPETITION
Scenario
It is the near future. Humans have set foot on Mars and returned, and are expanding off-Earth industry. It is time to scout for locations for the first permanent Martian colony.
Your mission is to explore the Kaiser Crater in the Martian Noachis Terra region for future habitability and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Your rover is equipped with core drilling and sampling equipment as well as the necessary sensors for autonomous navigation. The crew does the science work at each site, but the rover needs to safely and efficiently deliver the crew and equipment to each site autonomously.
The hazardous terrain combined with the low gravity and possible poor visibility during dust storms means your rover and mission could fail due to an unfortunate accident.
Your mission planning strategy and autonomous driving algorithms will utilize the powerful and well-known Robotic Operating System (ROS2). The high-fidelity Mars environment, rover dynamics, and mission evolution will be provided by Space Teams PRO. In combination, ROS2 and ST PRO enable you to develop, test, and refine robotic mission concepts in a high-fidelity, physics-based environment.
Important Dates
Team Registration
The team application deadline has passed.
If your team did not register for the competition, you can still attempt the competition challenge, but you won't be eligible for prizes. After the competition ends, we will maintain a public leaderboard of verified scores and will continue accepting score submissions from the general public.
WHAT COMPETITORS DO
The competition consists of a rover simulation in Space Teams PRO, provided code that connects the rover simulation to ROS2, and competitor-written code in ROS2 that takes in sensor/telemetry data and sends motor/steering commands to drive the rover. The mission is to drive to each of the 20 waypoints around the crater and perform a core sampling operation at each waypoint. While the distances are somewhat short, there is challenging terrain and obstacles to detect and avoid. Each core sampling operation takes hours of (time-scaled) time to complete for each waypoint, so the lighting conditions on the surface change drastically. During days 2 through 4 of the mission, a dust storm absorbs and reflects light in the atmosphere. Your autonomous driving code must handle all of these conditions and drive between waypoints without flipping over or getting stuck.
While Space Teams PRO is built for user-accessible simulation editing, the competitors are expected to only add/change ROS2 code for their submissions.
Success Criteria
Failure Criteria
Scoring
The score for a run of the simulation is a combination of number of waypoints reached and the driving-time taken to reach them. For score ranking, the number of waypoints reached is considered first, then the driving-time. For example, a run that reaches 18 waypoints in 30 minutes is better than a run that reaches 17 waypoints in 10 minutes. In the event of a failure, the current number of waypoints and the last-reached waypoint time are used for the score.
We believe the best rover software may go quite fast, more resembling a rally car or Baja 500 truck than the rovers of the 2020s. There is of course a trade-off to be made with speed and reliability. We won't invalidate a score just because the driving looks unrealistically dangerous.
Score Submission
Competitors will record the simulation running with their control code running on their own computer.
Competitors can attempt the sim as many times as they want to get a better score. Competitors can update their team's submission as many times as they like before the submission deadline.
The finals qualification submission is required to be eligible to win a prize in this competition. This is a "completion grade" sort of submission, meant to ensure that your team is familiar with the competition submission process and won't need to figure it out right before the final submission deadline. It also helps us find issues with enough time to address them before the competition ends.
Included in submissions:
The submission is a claim of a certain score. The competition organizers will validate top scores and add them to a public leaderboard.
Submission Links:
https://forms.gle/fsi2UKVgDsAABZ6d7https://forms.gle/xwDek82fqgLRYdFg8COMPETITOR SETUP
COMPETITION RULES
WHERE TO FIND INFORMATION
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