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Mission Design Challenge

Drive a Rover on Mars

Saved locally on this device
Learning goals
  • Match instruments to the science goals of the challenge.
  • Balance mass, power, cost, risk, and communication throughput.
  • Explain your design tradeoffs in your own words.
Help & glossary
  • Meters update in real time so you can see the impact of each choice.
  • Errors are red; warnings are amber. You can still launch with warnings.
  • Your written explanation stays on this device.

This is an educational mission-design simulation. Scores and simplified engineering values do not represent an approved or operational NASA mission.

1. Briefing2. Platform3. Power4. Comms5. Instruments6. Timeline7. Explanation8. Results

Mission briefing

You are designing a small Mars rover. It needs a way to move around, take pictures of interesting rocks, and study what the soil is made of. Pick your parts carefully — the rover has to survive very cold nights.

Destination
Mars surface
Mission type
Rover
Environment
cold-night, dusty, thin-atmosphere

Science goals

  • Take pictures of the surface.
  • Study what the soil is made of.

Sources