[1] The competition is held annually at the Mars Desert Research Station, outside Hanksville, Utah in the United States.

The URC was first established in 2006[2] with the goal of promoting STEM education and inspiring the next generation of space explorers.

Since its inception, the competition has grown in scale and significance, attracting teams from universities and institutions worldwide.

[3] This imagined use case drives the competition's emphasis on teleoperation and ability to perform tasks that a human might need to.

Detailed information about years 2007 - 2009 is unavailable, but by 2010 there were 4 tasks: Sample Return, Site Survey, Equipment Servicing, and Emergency Navigation.

In addition to these tasks teams scored points on a presentation they gave to judges on the design of their rover.

[7] 2016 introduced a formal down-selection process, including a CDR (Critical Design Review) which took the place of the Presentation task, and a semi-finals round of competition.

Notably, the 2019 Science task requires detection of life aboard the rover, whereas in 2018 teams could bring back samples to conduct tests at the base.

[12] A Polish team from Czestochowa University of Technology won the 2018 competition, making 6 consecutive years Poland has been represented on the podium.

Teams must investigate multiple sites of biological interest, using instruments and methods of their choice, where they must conduct analysis of samples entirely on board the rover.

Rovers are required to traverse a wide variety of terrain—anything from soft sandy areas, to rock and boulder fields, to vertical drops.

Teams are given approximate GPS coordinates for each pickup and delivery location, and potentially specific instructions for particular objects.

Previous equipment tasks have included pumping air into an inflatable habitat, and cleaning solar panels.