CRATER brings space robotics from the lecture hall to the field

The student initiative is developing ETH Zurich's first autonomous Mars rover, creating a platform for the next generation of aerospace and robotics engineers.

"At first we wanted to produce fuel on the Moon- then we realized: we don't even have a rover for that!" recounts co-founder Vala Shkreli. That's how CRATER, one of ETH's most ambitious student projects, came about in 2025.

Around 70 students from about ten different fields of study are jointly developing ETH's first autonomous rover in under 9 months. Their goal: to take part in the European Rover Challenge in Poland.

The project is building modular systems that can autonomously orient themselves and conduct scientific exploration in Mars-like landscapes. The competition tasks are directly modeled on real NASA and ESA missions.

CRATER was founded by ETH master's students Vala Shkreli and Alex Sheridan. The rover is being built in the ETH Hangar at Innovation Park Zurich in Dübendorf. The park's outdoor grounds offer straightforward and realistic testing opportunities, including the ability to recreate Mars-like mission conditions. Beyond that, CRATER benefits from exchanges with other student teams and startups, joint events and networking, media and communications collaborations, and the existing infrastructure wich is especially valuable in the early stages of an ambitious project like this one.