Description

Recently near the Center for Inspection of the Rahe Crater meteorite activity has been getting worse and worse. During the night large quakes were felt shaking the nearby laboratory. Assuming the worst, your rovers have been dispatched to explore the source of these quakes. Based on data collected at the lab there are five general locations where these meteorites have landed. Due to the lack of GPS in that area, your team must submit a pre-mission briefing going over the exploration plan, and the experiments your team plans to conduct and why you feel they are best suited to analyzing the meteorites and impact sites. The rover must then explore as many sites as possible, collecting samples along with meteorite fragments at each location. In addition to the integrated sensors of your team’s rover, an external Geiger counter calibrated against previous meteorites will be provided to assist in your search.

The physical connector used for the Geiger counter will be a ¼” TRS connector. The exact pinout, position, and connection details will be provided later. GPS will not be allowed to be used for any aspects of this task. Teams must use alternative methods, like the Geiger counter, when finding the meteorites.

Requirements

Pre-Mission Briefing

Prior to the competition, teams will submit a document covering:

  1. Their exploration plan:
    1. Intended approach to searching for the meteorite impacts.
  2. Their rover’s sensing capabilities
    1. The instruments on board your rover.
    2. The operational or scientific significance of the onboard instruments.
  3. Experimental motivation and procedure:
    1. The experiments you plan to perform.
    2. The procedure for each experiment.
    3. The operational or scientific significance of the experimental results.

Exploration Mission

During the task time, teams will:

  1. Locate 3 meteorite impact sites using the provided map (to be delivered at a later date), their integrated sensors, and the provided instrumentation.
  2. Document the impact sites:
    1. Photograph the impact site from at least two angles separated by at least 90°.
    2. Take a panoramic photograph of the impact site and its surroundings.
  3. Recover a meteorite fragment for study.
  4. Take a sample with a mass between 10 g and 100 g from the surroundings for study.
  5. Record the location of the meteorite relative to the starting point and at least two other landmarks.
    1. The use of GPS data to calculate these distances is not permitted.
  6. Return to the starting point with the collected samples and meteorite fragments.

Post-Mission Report

Following the task time, teams will have two hours to write and submit a document covering:

  1. Map the route taken in the field and differences from the planned route:
    1. Starting location
    2. Locations of impact sites
    3. Other landmarks, obstacles, or other observed features
    4. Scale and cardinal directions
  2. Explain any changes from the planned exploration approach and what conditions in the field necessitated them.
  3. Describe the environmental measurements taken using the provided instrument and any on-board sensors.
  4. Specify the measured relative locations, including both distance and direction from the referenced landmarks, of the selected impact sites
    1. Include the work on calculating these values. Specify how the rover’s instrumentation provided this information.
  5. Findings at the impact sites
    1. Panoramic images
    2. Detailed photographs of the interesting features of the site
    3. Nearby landmarks
    4. Description of the impact site and the meteorite.
  6. Describe the sample taken from the site:
    1. Mass
    2. Physical characteristics
  7. Describe the meteorite fragment recovered
  8. Experimental observations and results
  9. Summarize your observations and experimental measurements and compare the impact sites.

Judge’s Commentary