"You submit your entry using the web form at http://icfpcontest.org/submit.php"

It's a little ironic they use PHP for a contest that is supposed to demonstrate the viability of functional programming languages.

Use the right tool for the job. "Functional" can have more than one meaning.

And PHP is not even a supported language for the contest: http://www.icfpcontest.org/live-cd.html

maybe my sense of humor is bad, but am I correct in assuming the mars rover reference is joke?

yes. 75 ms communication between earth and mars is physically impossible according to general relativity. Seeing as how nobody (including NASA) has found a way around this limitation, messages back and forth between earth and mars will always take on the order of minutes.