Mars Rover UdeG Space (Universidad de Guadalajara)
UdeG finished last of 34 in 2024 and last of 35 in 2025, then 14th of 36 in 2026 with all four missions scoring. The 2026 rover, Maya, is a new vehicle: 50 kg, 1.10 m tall, with student-manufactured wheels and arm, a life-detection laboratory module and a drone called Quetzal. The 21-place move is the second-largest single-season rank jump of the 2026 competition, and the clearest documented case of building the missing subsystems and watching the rank follow.
What this team shows
- Two last-place finishes are survivable. The review score held between 87.32 and 92.91 through both of them, and the team kept its place in the field.
- The gain is concentrated in the missions that had been zero. Equipment Servicing went 0 to 32.5 and Autonomy 0 to 30, which is 62.5 of the 90.3-point gain.
- A named rover with a published mass and height is rare at any tier. Maya at 50 kg and 1.10 m is more disclosure than most teams in the top of the field provide.
- The record is one year long. A single season cannot separate a new rover from a new cohort, and the tier follows the sample rather than the trend.
Identity and results
Mars Rover UdeG Space is the rover programme of the Universidad de Guadalajara, based in the Centro Universitario de Ciencias Exactas e Ingenierías and organised under the UdeG Space student group. It reached the finals in three consecutive seasons, 2024 to 2026 S-CENSUS. In 2026 it was one of two Mexican teams at the finals and the only one made up entirely of public-university students S-UDEG-UDG-NEWS. Tier C is the census label for a three-year mean rank of 27.7; the tier rule is defined on the census page.
The 2026 rover is Maya S-UDEG-UDG-NEWS. No name is published for the 2024 or 2025 machines.
| Year | Rover | Total | Rank | Field | SAR | Science | Delivery | Equipment | Autonomy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | not published | 135.37 | 34 | 34 | 89.37 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | not published | 147.52 | 35 | 35 | 92.91 | 66 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 2026 | Maya | 237.82 | 14 | 36 | 87.32 | 68 | 20 | 32.5 | 30 |
The 2026 total is the exact sum of its components. The 2025 total is not: that season carries a 16.39-point penalty against a component sum of 163.91, which gives the recorded 147.52 S-URC25-SCORES. The three-year slope, 135.37 to 147.52 to 237.82, ends with a jump of 90.3 points in one season.
The rover and its subsystems
The team site is a browser application that renders no readable text, so almost everything below comes from a university press feature published before the 2026 finals S-UDEG-UDG-NEWS.
Mobility. Maya has a mass of about 50 kg and a height of 1.10 m, with wheels designed and manufactured by the students for rough terrain S-UDEG-UDG-NEWS. Suspension type, wheel diameter, drive motors and top speed are unpublished. The mass is worth noting because the 2027 URC limit for a deployed configuration is also 50 kg, so a rover of this size competes with little or no margin S-URC27-RULES §2.a.
Arm and end-effectors. A powerful robotic arm built by the students, with no published degrees of freedom, reach or actuator detail S-UDEG-UDG-NEWS. The scored evidence is Equipment Servicing at 0, 0 and 32.5: the arm became operational in the Maya build.
Science. A laboratory module for detecting life is named as one of the rover’s two most important modules alongside the arm S-UDEG-UDG-NEWS. No instrument, assay or detection method is given. Science is the only mission that scored in all three seasons: 46, 66 and 68.
Drone. Quetzal is described as a student-built drone that assists the rover’s operations S-UDEG-UDG-NEWS. Whether it flew in a scored mission is unknown.
Delivery, autonomy, communications. Delivery went 0, 5 and 20 and Autonomy went 0, 0 and 30. Radios, battery, on-board computer and the autonomy stack are unpublished, and no public code archive was found.
Beyond URC. The team won the lunar rover category at the seventeenth Mexican Robotics Tournament in 2026 S-UDEG-UDG-NEWS. That is a national event, not a URC result.
Mission performance
2024, last of 34. A review score of 89.37 with science at 46 and the other three missions at zero S-URC24-SCORES. A rover that qualified well and could not execute the mission set.
2025, last of 35. The review score rose to 92.91 and science to 66, but delivery reached only 5 and servicing and autonomy stayed at zero S-URC25-SCORES. Two seasons of the same shape: drive and analyse, but no manipulation and no navigation.
2026, 14th of 36. Maya scored in all four missions: science 68, delivery 20, servicing 32.5 and autonomy 30 S-URC26-SCORES. The 90.3-point gain breaks down as 32.5 points of newly working servicing, 30 of autonomy, 15 of delivery and 2 of science, plus the 16.39-point penalty that was recorded in 2025 and not in 2026, less 5.59 on the review score. The rank moved 21 places.
Lessons for a first build
- The missing subsystem is the whole score. Two seasons at the bottom were not caused by weak science or a weak review. They were caused by three mission families at or near zero, and the rank moved as soon as those families produced points.
- Publish a mass and a height. A single sentence in a press interview says more than most teams’ technical pages. The same sentence is the fastest way to show that a mass budget exists.
- Treat the review as the pipeline and the missions as the product. The review score never explained the results, but it kept the team in the field through two last places, and the third season converted.
- A drone is an accessory with a cost. Quetzal is a student-built extra, and a team with a thin arm and no autonomy might spend that effort on the two missions that score every year.
- A first-time team should plan for the second season. The 2026 jump is one data point. Whether it lasts is the only question that matters for anyone benchmarking against it.
What remains uncertain
The 2024 and 2025 rovers are unnamed and their specifications are unpublished, so the Maya rebuild cannot be compared with what it replaced. Whether Quetzal flew in a scored mission is not stated. The life-detection module’s instrument and assay are named as the rover’s key payload but never specified. Team size and continuity between the 2024 and 2026 cohorts are unknown, which is the main reason the 2026 result cannot yet be read as a trend. Suspension, drive motors, battery, radios and on-board computer are all unpublished.
Team sources
- Universidad de Guadalajara news, “With ‘Maya’ exploration vehicle, UdeG Space prepares to compete in Utah”, the mass, height, wheels, arm, laboratory module and drone.
- Generación Universitaria, “Ingenieros de la UdeG crean rover con el que buscan llegar a Marte”, a second account of the 2026 entry.
- marsrover.mx, the team site listed by URC.
- University Rover Challenge, the competition whose official score sheets carry the results above.
Sources for this page
- S-CENSUSURC team census, master index (68 teams, 187 team-year rows, tiers, documentation test)Print copy
- S-UDEG-UDG-NEWS"With 'Maya' exploration vehicle, UdeG Space is preparing to compete in Utah", rover *Maya* ≈50 kg, 1.10 m; student-built wheels and arm; life-detection lab module; *Quetzal* drone; public-university teamOriginal
- S-URC25-SCORESURC2025 Official ScoresOriginal
- S-URC27-RULESUniversity Rover Challenge 2027 – Requirements and GuidelinesOriginal Archived copy
- S-URC24-SCORESURC2024 Official ScoresOriginal
- S-URC26-SCORESURC2026 Official ScoresOriginal Archived copy