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Polish team wins European Rover Challenge

13.09.2021 07:45
A Polish team has won this year's European Rover Challenge, an international competition for Mars rovers.
Photo:
Photo: PAP/Piotr Polak

A total of 37 teams of students from more than a dozen countries competed in the 7th European Rover Challenge, one of the world's largest events of its kind, according to organizers.

The winning squad came from the Kielce University of Technology, south of Warsaw.

"It's a great honor for us because we put hundreds of hours of hard work into the preparations for the challenge," Daniel Włodarczyk, a spokesman from the Polish team, said after the judges announced their decision.

A team from Turkey came in second, while a Swiss team finished third in the event, which was held in the Polish city of Kielce from Friday to Sunday.

Meanwhile, a team from India was named the winner of the online part of the event.

The Polish Space Agency in 2019 inked a statement of intent to work with America's NASA on space exploration.

The agency said at the time that Poland was eager to work with NASA—America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration—in joint space exploration efforts in the years ahead.

Dozens of instruments designed and constructed by Polish scientists and engineers have been employed in various international space missions during the last 40 years, according to the Polish Space Agency.

These include several sensors and robotic probes on NASA’s Mars Curiosity and InSight landers, the agency said.

In November 2018, a hi-tech robotic device designed and built by a Polish company landed on Mars on board a NASA spacecraft.

Poland has more than 350 companies active in its space technology sector, according to the government agency.

The country aims to shell out millions to develop its own satellite systems and space technology under plans unveiled by the Polish Space Agency at the end of 2017.

(gs)

Source: PAP