NASA MarsXR 2 challenge is the second community contest for using UE5 to build virtual reality environments for future Mars mission training.
One year after the first MarsXR challenge, NASA returns with another contest, the MarsXR2, courtesy of herox.com. This will be a contest where talented developers are testing their limits while helping NASA by building Virtual Reality assets and specific scenarios for the space heroes to use in extravehicular activity research over the surface of Mars.
The NASA MarsXR 2 challenge will have two phases
This new challenge will be divided into two phases: storyboarding, which will outline concepts, and development, which will provide assets and situations. Solvers may submit to both stages or any step alone. Phase 1’s winning solutions will serve as the basis for Phase 2’s development.
You may help NASA in Phase 2 by developing extra resources and extravehicular activity (EVA)-specific scenarios that will be utilized to test flight protocols and prepare for Martian conditions. The objective is to produce a realistic, captivating, and immersive experience.
Contest timeline:
- Open to Submissions – Feb 16, 2023
- Phase 1 Submission Deadline – March 30, 2023 @ 5pm ET
- Phase 1 Judging Period Mar 30 – April 27, 2023
- Phase 1 Winners Announcement and Phase 2 Launch April 27, 2023
- Phase 2 Submission deadline Aug 3, 2023 @ 5pm ET
- Judging Aug 3 – Sep 28, 2023
- Winners Announced October 10, 2023
What are the MarsXR 2 prizes?
Two sections of this competition will award a total of $70,000 in prizes. Also, Phase 2 winners may receive some NASA merchandise in addition to being given the opportunity to electronically interact with the NASA team creating the XOSS MarsXR system.
We can already imagine the results, now that UE5 released the 5.1 update.
