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| Mission Mars | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Challenge Number | 6 |
| Released In | 2003 |
| Teams | 4331 [1] |
Mission Mars was the 2003-04 challenge theme of FIRST Lego League. It revolved around the NASA missions to Mars [2] [3] with the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.
Teams were tasked with choosing a mission model, researching a question about it, and finding a creative solution. [4] Then teams shared their project with the community and with judges at competition. [2]
The table performance portion of Mission Mars is played on a 4 ft by 8 ft field rimmed by wood boards. At competition, two of these fields are placed together to form an 8 ft square. In each 2+1⁄2-minute match, a team competes on each field with their robot to earn up to 400 points manipulating the mission models.
One of the mission models, the Alliance Habitation Module, straddles both fields in the center. This model can earn points for both teams when the two halves are pushed together. [5] The touch penalty objects are four boulders, worth up to 14 points each depending on location. One is removed from the field each time the robot is touched outside of base. [5]
Home base was unusual this year; usually base is a square region set in the corner of the field. For Mission Mars, the robot started on a fold-out platform (to emulate the Mars Rovers) sitting in a triangular base. [5]
All the missions were themed after aspects of Mars exploration: [5]
Mars 3 was a robotic space probe of the Soviet Mars program, launched May 28, 1971, nine days after its twin spacecraft Mars 2. The probes were identical robotic spacecraft launched by Proton-K rockets with a Blok D upper stage, each consisting of an orbiter and an attached lander.
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was an American robotic space probe developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. MGS was a global mapping mission that examined the entire planet, from the ionosphere down through the atmosphere to the surface. As part of the larger Mars Exploration Program, Mars Global Surveyor performed atmospheric monitoring for sister orbiters during aerobraking, and helped Mars rovers and lander missions by identifying potential landing sites and relaying surface telemetry.
Opportunity, also known as MER-B or MER-1, and nicknamed Oppy, is a robotic rover that was active on Mars from 2004 until 2018. Opportunity was operational on Mars for 5111 sols. Launched on July 7, 2003, as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program, it landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its twin, Spirit (MER-A), touched down on the other side of the planet. With a planned 90-sol duration of activity, Spirit functioned until it got stuck in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, while Opportunity was able to stay operational for 5111 sols after landing, maintaining its power and key systems through continual recharging of its batteries using solar power, and hibernating during events such as dust storms to save power. This careful operation allowed Opportunity to operate for 57 times its designed lifespan, exceeding the initial plan by 14 years, 47 days. By June 10, 2018, when it last contacted NASA, the rover had traveled a distance of 45.16 kilometers.
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The overall objectives include investigating Mars' habitability, studying its climate and geology, and collecting data for a human mission to Mars. The rover carries a variety of scientific instruments designed by an international team.
The FIRST Lego League Challenge is an international competition organized by FIRST for elementary and middle school students.
The Aurora programme was a human spaceflight programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) established in 2001. The objective was to formulate and then to implement a European long-term plan for exploration of the Solar System using robotic spacecraft and human spaceflight to investigate bodies holding promise for traces of life beyond the Earth.
Lego Space is a science fiction-oriented Lego theme which focuses on astronauts, space colonization, spaceships, and extraterrestrial life. Introduced in 1978, along with Castle and Town, with each of the three themes representing the 'Past' (Castle), 'Present' (Town) and 'Future' (Space). It is one of the oldest and most extensive themes in Lego history, consisting of over 300 individual sets.
Nano Quest was the name of the 2006–07 challenge theme of FIRST Lego League. It revolved around the emerging field of nanotechnology.
Botball is an educational robotics program that focuses on engaging middle and high school aged students in team-oriented robotics competitions. Thousands of children and young adults participate in the Botball program. It has been active since 1998 and features a robotics curriculum which focuses on designing, building and programming a pair of autonomous robots. Teams use a standardized kit of materials, document the process and then compete in a tournament in which the challenges change annually. All materials in the kits are exactly the same for every team around the world, so there are no unfair advantages. Botball teams are mostly based in the United States with over 300 teams and local tournaments in more than a dozen regions. In recent years it also holds an annual Global Conference on Educational Robotics (GCER), with an international tournament that attracts teams all over the country as well as from Mexico, Austria, China, Uganda, Poland, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, and many others.
Smart Move is the name of the 2009-10 FIRST Lego League challenge, released September 3, 2009. It is centered on transport and how to make new and more efficient forms.
Food Factor is the FIRST Lego League (FLL) competition for 2011-12; released on September 2. It focuses on food safety and methods to prevent contamination.
Body Forward is the 2010-11 FIRST Lego League competition. The project and missions revolve around biomedical engineering.
Climate Connections was the 2008-09 FIRST Lego League competition. Its theme centered on understanding the effects of climate and climate change.
Ocean Odyssey is the 2005-06 FIRST Lego League challenge theme. It centered on topics relating to the world's oceans and oceanography. The challenge was developed with the collaboration of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
No Limits is the 2004-05 FIRST Lego League challenge theme. It focused on solutions for aiding people with physical disabilities. The year's theme was introduced by the story Late for Lunch by James Patrick Kelly, which the described the life of a disabled child.
Curiosity is a car-sized Mars rover exploring Gale crater and Mount Sharp on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral (CCAFS) on November 26, 2011, at 15:02:00 UTC and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17:57 UTC. The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover's touchdown target after a 560 million km (350 million mi) journey.
The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), also known as the Asteroid Retrieval and Utilization (ARU) mission and the Asteroid Initiative, was a space mission proposed by NASA in 2013; the mission was later cancelled. The Asteroid Retrieval Robotic Mission (ARRM) spacecraft would rendezvous with a large near-Earth asteroid and use robotic arms with anchoring grippers to retrieve a 4-meter boulder from the asteroid.
The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is a space station which is planned to be assembled in orbit around the Moon. The Gateway is intended to serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, and habitation module for astronauts as part of the Artemis program. It is a multinational collaborative project: participants include NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). The Gateway is planned to be the first space station beyond low Earth orbit.
PrOP-M were two Soviet Mars rovers that were launched on the unsuccessful Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions in 1971. PrOP-M were the first rovers to be launched to Mars, 26 years before the first successful rover mission of NASA's Sojourner in 1997. Because the Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions failed, the existence of the rovers was kept secret for nearly 20 years.
