Let’s finish the mission! — ROADS on Mars reboot information
G’day, ROADS on mars teams!
This is the email/blog post you’ve been waiting for — we’re officially announcing the ROADS on Mars Student Challenge reboot.
This is not a restart! We’re not asking teams to go back to the beginning and start all over again. The challenge will pick up where we left off back in March. You won’t lose any of the work that you’ve already done.
How will we finish the final stages of the challenge? Virtually, by early September around when the school year usually starts.
Here are a few details:
Mini-challenges
Mini-challenge awards for most hubs have been announced. Some hubs were still accepting mission patch submissions when the ROADS on Mars challenge went on hiatus. NESSP is working with those hubs to finish accepting submissions and announce winners.
Mission Development Log (MDL)
Each team’s MDL was originally due during the hub’s challenge event, to be reviewed during the on-deck time. For the reboot, all MDLs will be submitted online — similar to how the mini-challenge submissions were submitted. The submission portal for MDLs will open in August.
Running the final challenge
There will be no in-person events for any hub. Teams will record their challenge run and submit it online for scoring. Videos must be of one single run of the challenge — straight through, no cuts or edits. This will result in a video that is long and difficult to upload, so teams should use social media (for example, Facebook Live) to broadcast and record their challenge run. Teams will then submit the URL to that video for the NESSP team and hubs to review.
Teams will also submit a score sheet of their official challenge run. NESSP will provide an official score sheet which should be used by an educator or mentor who is present during the team’s run to assess and score the team’s mission performance. Teams will then upload that score sheet when they submit their video URL to NESSP. We’ll use that completed score sheet to compare notes when we review the video for official scoring.
The score sheet will be available on the NESSP website later this summer, along with tips on getting good video when your team runs the challenge.
The score sheet and video will be due in September according to the submission period set by each hub — some may accept submissions in August, some in September. We’ll announce exact dates later this summer.
More info to come!
Details on deadlines, recording your video, and submitting your materials will be available over the summer. Keep an eye on your inbox and on the NESSP blog for information as it becomes available!