Teams will be challenged to
Design, build and test a rover to retrieve cached sample canisters on a martian surface
Pass through an engineering review process with space sector engineers
Win against other teams from across the UK
We look for people with hands on project experience when recruiting
Andrew Bacon, Thales Alenia Space UK
2018 - 2019
Participants will
Gain experience working within a team on a technical project
Practice skills learned in their studies
Meet experts and recruiters from across the space sector
This competition provides the right skills and experiences they [students] need to get jobs in the industry
Dr Chris Mutlow, Director of RAL Space
About »
The Olympus Rover Trials challenge student teams to design, construct and operate a rover for an analogue sample return mission to Mars. Students create a rover concept, trade off performance parameters and pass through a rigorous review process with panels of engineers from the space sector. The competition aims to:
- Challenge students to perform a complex, systems engineering task of the development of a vehicle to a set of real space mission requirements;
- Enable students to apply taught technical skills and learn new ones relevant to a job in the space industry in an applicable project environment;
- Provide students with an opportunity to develop and practice other important and transferable skills, such as teamwork, leadership and project management;
- Foster interest in the activities of the space sector, especially in space engineering and robotics.
Key Dates »
| Competition Launch | 1 October 2018 |
| Entry Deadline | 31 October 2018 |
| PDR Deadline | 16 December 2018 |
| PDR Feedback | 27th January 2019 |
| CDR Deadline | 17 March 2019 |
| CDR reviewer meeting | by 30 April 2019 |
| Competition grant application | 14 May 2019 |
| Test Readiness Review | 7/14 July 2019 |
| Competition Event | 21/28 July 2019 |
Rules and Resources »
Rules and requirements document, CAD files, drawings, template documents.
Contact Us »
Have a question about the competition? Want to enter? Want to sponsor?
Updates
Update #1 [11 November]
The competition has officially begun!
10 teams applied to enter the competition. They are now busy reading the requirements and rules, creating their concepts and performing intiial trade-off studies before the preliminary design review at the end of the year.
The teams are:
- University of Bath
- Cranfield University [2 teams]
- Imperial College London
- King's College London
- University of Manchester
- University of Oxford
- University of Southampton
- University of West of England
- RAL Space graduates