Silesian Phoenix took 6th place in the 2026 Canadian International Rover Challenge!
The 2026 Canadian International Rover Challenge, one of the most important international competitions for student-built Mars rovers, is now behind us. This year’s ninth edition took place August 7–10 in Drumheller, in the Canadian province of Alberta. The badlands there have long served as a terrain analog to the surface of Mars. Twenty-seven teams from universities around the world competed. Silesian Phoenix took 6th place in the overall standings, scoring 203.62 points. For the second year in a row, we’re among the top six in the competition!
The Phoenix III rover took on five challenges:
🌙 The Heist Mission is a nighttime mission conducted in total darkness. The rover had to avoid moving cameras and infrared sensors, cut the correct wire in the security panel, decipher a password transmitted in Morse code, log into the console via a serial port, and open the vault. We scored 71.43 points here, which gave us the best result among all teams.
🍳 RoverCooked: our rover became a “chef.” It had to fulfill orders according to a recipe book, cut, “fry,” flip, and arrange ingredients, while the operators determined the order of the orders in real time. We scored 55.08 points, which gave us one of the best results in this competition.
🔬 Exploration Proposal was a scientific mission. The rover selected and documented three research sites, collected soil samples, and conducted experiments. Based on this, the team prepared a report that included elements of a business plan. We scored 46.48 points.
🚚 Refreshment Delivery involved driving through seven gates across increasingly challenging terrain, with steep inclines, rocks, and a drop of up to 1 m. The rover was transporting a delicate package equipped with a shock sensor. We scored 22.29 points.
🥤 Snack Run involved operating and servicing a “Martian” snack vending machine. We had to press buttons, flip switches, connect components, and enter service codes according to the technician’s instructions. We scored 8.34 points.
For us, this is above all confirmation of our consistent performance. Since 2023, we have placed 9th at the Anatolian Rover Challenge, 8th at CIRC 2024, and 6th at CIRC 2025, and now we’ve placed 6th again out of 27 teams. The results show where our efforts have paid off: in the manipulation tasks and the night mission. They also highlight what we need to work on, namely mobility in rough terrain. The insights gained in Canada will be directly incorporated into the Phoenix IV rover project.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the administration of the Silesian University of Technology, and our partners and sponsors, without whom this trip would not have been possible. Congratulations to the winners from the Carleton Planetary Robotics Team and to all the teams we had the opportunity to compete against. Our deepest gratitude goes to the entire Silesian Phoenix team for months of work, testing, and sleepless nights.
See you at CIRC 2027! 🚀
