I am not involved in this competition (and don't know all the details) but it looks very interesting. Teams teleoperate robots to navigate a Mars like terrain and retrieve small rock samples. ... more details can be found on their website.
If you are interested in watching the competition live see the following link:
http://nia-cms.nianet.org/RoboOps/Event-Info/Team-Live-Stream---Social-Media.aspx**i think they have the wrong day of the month listed, i.e. the wednesday and thursday are correct (not 100% sure tho).