2008 University Mars Rover Challenge

The Mars Society's University Rover Challenge is now in progress:

Anticipation Builds for 2008 University Rover Challenge - Mars Society post from a few days ago

Yesterday was for checking out the Mars Society Desert Research Station site. Then:

Competition begins on Friday, June 6, with the Construction, and Soil Characterization Tasks, and runs through Saturday, June 7, with the Emergency Navigation, and Geology Tasks.

Here's the University Rover Challenge site, where you can get updates. There are already some pictures and text updates.

Here's the Teams site. As you can see, SPAM is a proven rover power source.

The Oregon State University team has a YouTube Channel and website. They've also been posting about their progress before and during the competition. They didn't find any signs of intelligent life during the drive to the Mars habitat area, but finally found reptilian life.

Iowa State students engineer rover for Mars challenge - Iowa State University College of Engineering: Decagon Devices, the company that designed the soil probe and environmental sensors that are on NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft, which landed on Mars on May 25, donated a probe to the team and is also serving as a sponsor.

YURT - York University Rover Team