How did the idea of creating ERC arise?
We came up with the idea of creating ERC about a year ago. We have participated actively in the University Rover Challenge and I was connected with it from the very beginning. Maybe I did not build a rover but, in 2007 when we were creating Mars Festival in Cracow, we had promised to ourselves that ‘we will take part in URC! We’ll try to build a rover!’ Then we looked for companions, we have inspired them and that is how Skarabeusz emerged – the very first Martian rover made by Poles. The effect of work and inspiration of three people, who said ‘let’s do this!’ Then we asked Planeta PR for help publicise the matter.
Well, the very first participation of Skarabeusz in the URC contest in 2009 resulted in laughter and doubt. However, now we have reached 2014 and the media keep asking about the Hyperion rover. Here is the difference – six or seven years have passed and, after all the laughter, doubts and fairy tales about green humanoids, we are here during a three-days-long, serious event and we have guests who rule NASA. I think that it is the best conclusion of what we were able to achieve.
The next very important issue is that, when we finally managed to participate in URC and get some points in there, we thought that there are also other teams in Poland. We asked them why they are not going there. Money was the answer!
The cost of building a rover reaches about $15,000, but sometimes the journey to the USA itself equals $40,000. Reaching the USA is one thing; you then need to reach Utah. In Polish reality, we can compare it to journey in which you need to transport the rover from Szczecin to Rzeszów, or even further!
We started to think of any possibilities of bringing the contest closer and organising something in Europe. At first, Americans were unwilling because they knew that their brand there is strong. However, we kept insisting that the idea was worth it, which resulted in the consent of URC director Kevin Sloan. I presented him with my own idea: that if we want to talk about Martian bots in the world to the students – to present a kind of trend to build Martian rovers – then we should not focus on one project, but we need to think about a cup. We already have URC, now we also have ERC and we’re also think about ARC, which is Asian Rover Challenge. We have a team from India, two teams from Bangladesh did not arrive and an Australian team resigned.
What was the cause?
It turns out that cause was truly prosaic, but it is something we didn’t foresee – obtaining a visa to the Schengen zone is a difficult matter. Today some Egyptians told us that, because of bureaucracy issues, it is much more difficult to obtain Schengen visas than the one you need for the USA. It is very surprising!
Coming back to the contest itself, we have decided that it will be closer to conduct ERC in Poland and Poland will be associated with the bot contest as a result. While planning ERC, we acquired the same rules as in URC, so that people can predict how it will look. In the next year we know that, besides Martian rovers, other fields and modification in the contest will be included, depending on this year’s observations.
A fact worth pointing out is that our very first edition of ERC already includes 11 participating teams from Poland, India, Egypt and Colombia; compared to the first edition of URC where only four teams participated and only from nearby states.
Also, we are thinking about a contest where already working rovers that are used in police, border guards, fire brigade service could take part. We want it to occur simultaneously with the students’ contest so that the contest will professionalise.
While planning this year’s ERC, we thought about a conference too. In the USA, the winner team of URC is able to go to Houston in order to take part in the Mars Society conference and meet Dr Robert Zubrin as well as other well-known scientists. In Poland, as contestants are surrounded by the scientists from early morning throughout those three days, they are able to speak with them. It is the best part! This is our attitude towards the contest and a scheme we want to follow in the future editions of the event – three days of competition and three days of conference. I hope that the lecture is interesting and is not flat – besides technical topics, the issues of medicine and cosmic law are considered. What’s more, speakers can visit the competition place and see the things they moot during their lectures live.
That is – science meets practice?
Yes. Also, we have in mind popularisation and the future business issues – our business partners are PARP, NCBiR, Qumak, Wobit and Astor. All of them are interested in cooperation with students and professors.
Speaking about popularisation, the science and technology picnic that takes place simultaneously with the rovers contest affects it positively. That is another difference between ERC and URC. In the URC contest, we only know about it’s winner from social media and newspapers because it is not so easy to get to Utah. In our contest, the audience can see live all the things they have heard about for years – that, somewhere, Poles are getting some prizes. Maybe after this competition they will come back home and will start to build a rover of their own?
That is, more or less, what Robert Zubrin once said. He organised an art contest in the past, after which one of the contestants wrote to him about how he was inspired by winning his competition and was able to join MIT. That is what I am talking about! Maybe, some day, some young man will come here and ERC will be the thing that inspires him!
ERC inspires, fulfils dreams and creates new ones? Even those dreams which man is not aware are in his mind? Mars is so far away!
Yes. That is why we organise this event.
By organising the contest, do you make your own dreams come true? How did your own interest in Mars and Martian rovers appear?
Well, yes… It is a bit egoistic that, through conducting ERC, I realise my own dreams and thousands of people needed to be engaged in order to organise the event (laughter). The movie that weaned me was ‘Star Wars’ – the one you could see in the cinemas – and also ‘Star Trek’. Later on, I had an amazing mentor who unfortunately passed away – he introduced me to astronomy. When I began my history studies, I recalled the fact from the past, that I was truly fascinated by astronomy. I suggested to my mentor that I can write a book about “American Manned Spaced Flights in Years 1953-2002”. It is still available in the Internet (it was published by Adam Marszałek Publishing) and it is a historical book telling the whole story of the space program. During the time of its publishing, I needed to add an appendix – on the day of printing, the Colombia space shuttle disaster occurred. The production was stopped because of adding this detail. Honestly, I wanted to go further and continue the topic, but all the people surrounding me at the faculty of history must have considered me mad. Why? There is this kind of stereotype that history relates only to fact files, references, all those yellow documents, wars, old archives. I was writing about American Space Programs 1953-2002. My classmate was writing about ‘The Crimes of the Post-Stalinist Period in years 1956-1970’ – the time is more or less the same, so what is the difference?
The difference is that I had no primary source. The only resource I had was NASA. By the way, my greeting was particularly warm at NASA – it was the time I started to explore the Internet and contact new people; some of them are here today at ERC. I was the one who wrote first and then we got to know each other; like Kuba Ryzenko (edit. ex-Director of the Polish Office for Outer Space Affairs) who now heads a lecture in ERC. I met him when I was looking for new contacts in different places. John Logdson also replied to my message – nowadays retired, this fantastic man is a professor and former chairperson of Space Policy Institute in Washington. He is a true legend when it comes to space politics and shaping new minds in the United States. He said to me: ‘Listen, I have one man in here doing a Fulbright scholarship and already takes care of those matters. His name is Jakub Ryzenko and I am mentoring him – you both should meet.’ We have been friends since that moment.
Later on, I wanted to do my doctoral thesis considering the history of Martian missions. On the day when I got my acceptance, I received the news of the death of my mentor, Professor Radzikowski, in Karpaty. Here the collapse occurred. I could not go further, because nobody wanted to accept me. Professor Radzikowski could see further, others could not.
At some point I decided to ask for Physicians help – JAXA, which is the Japanese Space Agency, took care of me. Thanks to them, I was able to take part in a month-long scholarship in Miyazaka. However, historians did not want to support my topic. Therefore, I decided to take up business and set up Planet PR agency. After a few years, I came back by occupying myself with Planet PR actions, which led me to the place I am now. After finishing this contest, we constitute European Space Foundation which, although derived from Mars Society, will be driven by ERC actions.
That means Podzamcze will become constant residence and place to organise ERC?
Actually, we negotiated the issue with Świętokrzyskie voivodeship, where this place belongs. We will discuss the conditions with the marshal. We will see what is their opinion after the first edition of the contest and how we will like it. We will talk it through and decide together.
While preparing for the contest, we had propositions from Bełchatów, Toruń and Gdańsk as well as from the majority of the big stadiums in Poland. However, we wanted to conduct it in an open area and the choice fell on the Podzamcze. It seems that it was a good choice.
To sum up, we consider ERC as a huge success. We had about 24,000 visitors, which makes this contest one of the biggest Science and Technology events in this part of the world! Our foreign guests write about our organisation in fine words. They like the idea and the atmosphere, and they promote us in their circles (academic, business, space). The information about the event showed up in the media around the world. We already have some requests from companies that want to be our partners for the next edition of the contest. This means that we can start working on the European Rover Challenge 2015. Personally, this year is the groundbreaking one for me because of one more thing. ERC is behind me, but a new role as the father of my first daughter is something that will additionally inspire me for the next year’s edition of the contest.
Photo © Anna Karahan