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The program commenced on August 6th, 2013 to commemorate the one year
anniversary of the landing of NASA’s Curiosity Rover. YRC is a STEM related educational effort that is designed for schools and organizations with students or
members in grades 5-12 to have the chance to build and compete at a global
level with a LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 based robotic rover and competition
arena intended to simulate the surface of Mars. The sandbox where the robotic
rover operates is intended to be replicated so participants can operate the competition locally at your school, home or club. The Rover built for the competition is pre-designed to accomplish specific experiments (tasks) similar to what
Mars Rovers accomplish today on the surface of Mars and other harsh environments on remote places on Earth. The competition is operated on-site at your
self-built sandbox and the final operation of the field tasks are then videotaped
and sent to each teams personalized YRC site for submission. Teams that have
submitted videos that show the final operation of the rover completing the tasks
under a time limit are then ranked against other teams. The YRC is designed
to prepare students for the University Rover Challenge that has operated successfully for the last 7 years directed by The Mars Society.
ICY SCIENCE | WINTER 2013- 2014