Mission Mars was the 2003-04 challenge theme of FIRST Lego League

FIRST Lego League

The FIRST® LEGO® League is an international competition organized by FIRST for elementary and middle school students ....

. It revolved around the NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 missions to Mars with the Spirit

Spirit rover

Spirit, MER-A , is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity , landed on the other side of the planet...

 and Opportunity

Opportunity rover

Opportunity, MER-B , is a robotic rover on the planet Mars, active since 2004. It is the remaining rover in NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission...

 rovers.

Project

Teams were tasked with choosing a mission model, researching a question about it, and finding a creative solution. Then teams shared their project with the community and with judges at competition.

Gameplay

The table performance portion of Mission Mars is played on a 4 ft by 8 ft field rimmed by wood boards. At competition, two of these fields are placed together to form an 8 ft square. In each 2 1/2 minute match, a team competes on each field with their robot to earn points manipulating the mission models.

One of the mission models, the Habitat, straddles both fields in the center. This model can earn points for both teams when the two halves are pushed together.

Home base was unusual this year; usually base is a square region set in the corner of the field. For Mission Mars, the robot started on a fold-out platform (to emulate the Mars Rovers) sitting in a triangular base.