Project Kratos: The Mars Rover

Team Kratos

Team Kratos is a multidisciplinary team from BITS Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa Campus, started in 2018, aspiring to develop rovers equipped with advanced subsystems suitable for interplanetary deep space missions, seeking to study the application of engineering research into rover robotics, autonomous traversal, and detection of extraterrestrial life. We’re a team of 30 students from diverse backgrounds with a vision, to create groundbreaking innovations in the field of space exploration.

The International Rover Challenge

SPROS IRC is a space robotics engineering competition. It challenges university students to conceptualise, design, develop and operate an astronaut-assistive next-generation space Rover and perform specific missions in Mars simulated conditions. The objective of the competition is to provide students with a real-world interdisciplinary engineering experience, combining practical engineering skills with soft skills, including business planning and project management. In our maiden year itself, we stood 10th out of 35 participating teams, and were first amongst all newly participating rovers. We were placed 4th Globally and were awarded the "Excellence Award - Overall" in International Rover Challenge 2023. This year we have qualified for the Finals of International Rover Challenge 2025 to be held in BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus, Goa. The event has been scheduled from 28th January 2025 to 2nd February 2025. To know more about our participation in IRC'25 watch our System Design and Development Review (SDDR) Package for IRC'25

University Rover Challenge

University Rover Challenge is an annual competition held by the Mars Society, in the desert of southern Utah in the United States. URC challenges student teams to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will one day work alongside astronauts exploring the Red Planet. URC was launched in 2006, with competitions being held every summer since 2007. The competition has 4 tasks, namely Science task, Extreme Retrieval, and Delivery task, Equipment Servicing task and Autonomous Traversal task