URC 2026 Finals: MR2 KAIST Completes Its First Finals

MR2 KAIST has completed its first University Rover Challenge finals. The URC 2026 finals were held from May 27-30, 2026 at the Mars Desert Research Station near Hanksville, Utah, bringing together student rover teams for field missions in a Mars-analog environment.

For our team, reaching and completing the finals was an important milestone. MR2 began this season with a full rover redesign, moved through the Preliminary Design Review and System Acceptance Review stages, and earned a place among the finalist teams. Competing in Utah gave us the chance to validate that work under real field constraints: dust, heat, terrain, communications limits, time pressure, and the operational discipline required to run a rover far from the lab.

The official URC 2026 results have now been published by The Mars Society. MR2 KAIST ranked 22nd overall with a total score of 206.7 points. We are proud to have taken part in this year’s finals and grateful for the chance to test our rover alongside the broader URC community.

For MR2 KAIST, this finals run is a foundation for what comes next. We return with field data, failure cases, operator feedback, and a clearer view of how our rover must improve. We are grateful to our teammates, mentors, sponsors, KAIST supporters, alumni, families, and friends who helped make our first URC finals possible.

Official results: URC2026 Scores