Telerobotic Mars Expedition Design Competition

The conference will also feature the face off of the ten finalists of the Telerobotic Mars Expedition Design Competition, whose teams were challenged to design a robotic flotilla that could be carried out using a human-class Mars surface lander with a 10-ton payload capacity, allowing the maximum possible science return while doing the most to prepare for human Mars missions to follow.

The theme of this year’s convention will be “Searching for Life with Heavy Lift”, which relates to our TMEDC challenge. Current heavy lift spaceflight options involve NASA’s SLS and SpaceX’s Starship, both capable of carrying large payloads into orbit, to the Moon and on to Mars. This significant payload capacity opens the door to a variety of extended robotic and human exploratory missions on the red planet, significantly increasing the chances to find ancient or present life on Mars.