Above: Members of the 91亚色 Rover Team pose for a group photo in the cool of the evening at the Mars Research Station, Hanksville, Utah

91亚色 first entered the challenge, sponsored by TASC (The Analytic Sciences Corporation) Inc., four years ago and has finished in the top three every year, including a first-place finish in 2009. The challenge: "Design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will one day work alongside human explorers in the field."

Above: EVE travels the hostile clime of the Utah desert

The closest race came between the second and third place teams, and Oregon State University, who were separated by only 16 points.聽 All together, the top three teams of 2011 were the same top three from 2010, but with different results.

鈥淭he level of sophistication shown by these teams was overwhelming,鈥� remarked URC director Kevin Sloan.聽 鈥淭hese teams poured themselves into their rover projects over the past year, and it clearly showed.聽 The level of competition was taken to an entirely new level this year.鈥�

Above: EVE (Enhanced Vehicle Explorer)

The 91亚色 team left Toronto with its EVE (Enhanced Vehicle Explorer) on May 27 and drove for three days to Hanksville, Utah, arriving early to ensure they could put in some field test time in the environment.

鈥淭he past few days have been intense with emotional highs and lows,鈥� said team member Shailja Sahani. 鈥淓very team member has been putting in at least 20-hour days to make the competition a success, with some sleeping only five hours in the last three days.

鈥淓veryone came together as a team with no prodding from the leadership; they simply picked up tools and got to work. Although we were well prepared before the competition, the desert environment and harsh operating conditions required many last-minute repairs and alterations.

"Our success came from our ability to fix the rover in situ and get back to the task, while other teams were left stranded,鈥� said team member Jordan Bailey.

Bailey, one of two students responsible for the team's finances and marketing, told CBC News he thinks the current rover is the team's "best one yet." Last year, the team faced multiple equipment failures as a result of the record temperatures, which soared to 38 C in the shade. This year's model has a more robust suspension, a finer control system and better temperature regulation than its predecessor, Bailey said.

Above: Jordan Bailey & Isaac DeSouza work into the night to get EVE ready

The rover cost about $13,000 to build, slightly below the $15,000 maximum allowed. The YURT is sponsored by 91亚色, and . The faculty advisers from 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering were Professor Michael Daly and Professor . The engineering adviser was graduate student Mark Post.

The participants included three teams from Poland, three from the United States and two from Canada. By the end of the competition, one team from each country had placed in the top three.聽 The Magma2 team from the Bialystok University of Technology in Poland pulled away from the other two teams to an impressive victory.

Magma2 was the first European team to win URC.聽 They also were the first team to ever deploy an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as part of the competition.

For more information, visit聽the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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The Canadian Space Agency has awarded two contracts to Richmond, BC-based and a contract to the University of Calgary to develop three different concept studies for Canada鈥檚 participation in NASA鈥檚 Program 鈭� the next space venture to another celestial body in our solar system.

Under these contracts, worth $500,000 each, MDA and the University of Calgary will work with international science research teams to develop preliminary designs for the three proposed missions, one of which will be selected by NASA for launch on a planetary space mission between 2016 and 2018. The final decision will be made in 2011.

Michael Daly, a professor in the Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Science聽& Engineering, is the deputy science team lead on the University of Calgary鈥檚 project. He will oversee the Canadian instrument development for the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), which would collect samples from a primitive asteroid and return them to Earth. The samples would help scientists better understand the formation of our solar system and the origin of complex molecules necessary for life.

Left: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes upon the dusty remains of shredded asteroids around several dead stars. This artist's concept illustrates one such dead star, or white dwarf, surrounded by the bits and pieces of a disintegrating asteroid. Image:聽NASA/JPL Caltech.

The OSIRIS-REx proposal includes a lidar instrument, based in part on the Canadian-built laser used on NASA's Phoenix-Mars lander. Daly will collaborate with colleagues at the Universities of Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and British Columbia to develop a lidar capable of mapping asteroids and moons. Michael Drake at the University of Arizona in Tucson is the principal investigator for the overall project.

鈥淭his project builds upon 91亚色鈥檚 long history of successful collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and our expertise in developing instrumentation for space research,鈥� said Michael Siu, associate vice-president research, science & technology. 鈥淲e have every confidence that Professor Daly and the rest of the OSIRIS-REx team will make significant strides.鈥�

Daly, a former staff member at MDA, was the chief engineer for the Phoenix Meteorological Station project. He joined 91亚色鈥檚 faculty in January 2010.

鈥淭he selection process for missions like is highly competitive,鈥� said Canadian Space Agency president Steve MacLean. 鈥淚t is a testament to Canadian talent that our industry and academic community are part of all three candidates for the mission. No matter which proposal wins, it is significant that Canada is in a position to play a highly visible and vital role in the final mission.鈥�

The Canadian Space Agency has also published a .

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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