NASA has selected the following 10 winners to share in the $20,000 prize of the MarsXR 2 - Phase 1. Be sure to read past the winning entries for some very important information about the People’s Choice Voting Round and Phase 2!
The winners are:
Ethan Briscoe - Habitat Plumbing and Electrical
The crew unloads equipment from the lander, then gets to work digging a trench from the lander to the habitat. Once they hook up the electrical and water connections, astronauts check the water pressure and voltage to ensure safe levels, then rebury the utility lines using their tools.
Frederic Kreutzer - Geological sampling with accompanying vehicle
The mission aims to geologically investigate an area in a grid-like manner. In this example a 25 sample grid with 5m drilling intervals is realized at a POI, so that an area of 625m² will be examined.
SpaceLux's team - EVA Suit Emergency
Here the idea is to repair an oxygen leak from a fellow astronaut suit. The leak will be present in places where teamwork is required. The scenario follows an emergency situation that should be completed within a specific time frame to ensure success.
Lauren Fell - Rover Unbogging and Medical Response
The scenario I have proposed involves two main aspects: collaboration on a task, and response to an unexpected event interrupting that collaboration. This two part scenario first involves the task of unbogging a rover and second to respond to a medical issue encountered by a fellow astronaut.
Xtory Team - Medical Operations Management during EVA on Mars
In this scenario, two astronauts (Alex and Morgan) are performing an EVA operation on the Mars surface (partial gravity), walking between two locations, when there is an explosion near Alex and a sharp object perforates her/his space suit on the left forearm.
Team NASA XR The Next Generation - Murphy’s Mars Mission
We have split up and laid out 4 elements to a complex and modular mission. The mission involves 3 “chapters” of sorts preparing for and executing a lava tube survey. The fourth element to the mission is a flexible way for trainers to be present in the session and be given the ability to throw unforeseen problems at the trainees.
Nataliia Savchenko's team - 3 ways to collect a rock core sample
Our scenario is focused on the rock samples collection. We describe steps needed to collect rock samples for three various cases: drilling down, break off and picking up stones from the surface.
Team Overheat - Maintenance
This storyboard is focused on doing maintenance tasks in the habitat. The three tasks that have been planned are: habitat maintenance, CENTAUR rover maintenance, and solar panels maintenance.
Trillium Technologies - Finding biosignatures on Mars with an AI glider
A multiplayer simulated activity in which astronauts interface with a AI glider to identify evidence of fossilized life.
Team ROGUE - Dusty Rescue
An MMSEV containing two crew has become stuck 18KM from the habitat during a dust storm and needs to be rescued by another MMSEV.
To close out Phase 1, note there is also a People’s Choice Voting Round for the top entries of our eligible competitors! From April 27 to noon ET on May 4, you can invite others to visit the challenge page and vote for their favorite submission under the Entries Tab. At the end of the week of voting, the top entry will win another $1,000 as a prize!
We would also like to recognize the following honorable mentions. While these teams will not be receiving a prize for this round, we would like to commend them for their excellent submissions and encourage you to have a look at what they proposed!
- Mark DeLuca - Space Exploration: Mars Resilience Training
- Aria Puri - Astrobiology Research: Existence of Life on Mars
- Alejandro Garcia - Xplorers, Rover Wheel Replacement
- Tommy Truong - Mars Emergency Response Scenario
- Tim Powell - Emergency Procedures during EVA's
- John Breeden II - Stormy Collection Scenario
- Sahil Mayenkar - Rock Sampling & Note-taking
- Ray Romoth - On Level Ground
- Jeff Morse - "Dustbuster" compressed CO2 device design and use
- Alex Wasowicz - Deep Well Drilling and Core Sampling
- Dmitri Garin - Not On My Shift
- Peter Ness - Laser Rescue
We ask that the challenge winners keep a close eye on their inboxes for future communications about the prize payout.
Congratulations once again to our winners!
What about Phase 2?
You will hopefully recall that the winning entries from Phase 1 play an important role in the premise of Phase 2 of this challenge (The Development Phase). This next phase is open to any eligible competitors, even if you did not participate in Phase 1!
In the Development Phase, you, the competitors, will take any of the winning scenarios from Phase 1 and develop them into XR experiences using the MarsXR engine. You can view these submissions here. Your Phase 2 submissions are not strictly limited to the assets and scenarios that won the Storyboarding phase, as you are encouraged to innovate upon them and fill in any gaps. However, the winning scenarios are of particular importance to the Challenge Sponsors and they are also largely mission-relevant, so using them as your core inspiration will be key here.
For all Phase 2 competitors, keep an eye out for upcoming communications about the NASA team’s feedback on these winning Phase 1 entries. Their insights could help ensure that your upcoming submissions are heading in the right direction and using your time wisely.
Last, since anyone can develop these Phase 1 ideas into a Phase 2 submission, we encourage you to communicate with your fellow challenge competitors so that information is freely available and your resources will be well spent. Don’t forget to use the challenge Discord Channel to connect with one another! You might even want to pick up some new teammates from other Phase 1 submissions to assist with your development.
Best of luck in Phase 2!
