High-Level Project Summary
Living on Mars will be hard and unpredictable. Most space missions are planned for every inch, top to bottom - we want to show you how future Martians could actually inherit improvisation and flexibility as a base of their workflow. One of the technologies that could help them is 3D printing. We will show you!
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
The distance between earth and Mars is so big that we will have to be self-sufficient on site. Tools and repairs should be made by resources available there. 3D printing gives us this opportunity. What if martian dust accumulates on the solar panels that power your habitat? Exactly that ended the mission of the “Insight” lander. Without proper tools for improvisation – like engineering software skills, you will be out of good options. Wrenches, screwdrivers, and replacement parts are a must-have for habitat – we created example models that could be used by future Mars inhabitants. Our project focuses on showing how printing methods can solve unpredicted Martian challenges.
All our models can be found in the “Projects” folder of this drive. All of them have a file named “README” with further description.
- Fire Curtain – fire protection mechanism in the form of a wall that cuts off path
- Lights - simple and modular lantern
- Shelf - universal shelf for any kind of space stuff
- Smoke detector - would work together with Fire Curtain
- Universal Connector - would join all above things together
As the whole mission of Martian scientists will be flexible and dynamic, so will their workspaces. That’s what we put a lot of thought into a design of a “universal stuff connector – it would enable quickly and surely connecting tools, shelves, walls together. More about it can be read in it’s “README”
Space Agency Data
https://donnees-data.asc-csa.gc.ca/dataset/65376529-3z6l-6u7e-732sbzy824wa25
Data used while rendering models
Used while research about mars environment
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20200001427/downloads/20200001427.pdf
Used while brain storming sessions
Hackathon Journey
We are the ResKosmos team. We assembled in PCI, a kind of creative space hub in Rzeszów city.
When we took all our skills and passions into consideration, we decided to put them into the “Outfitting a Mars Habitat” challenge. Once that was decided, we’ve put up a series of brainstorming events interspersed with looking for inspiration in the world around us.
We were located in the sports hall of a university. One thing we noticed is that such public facilities have a lot of safety measurements in place. That inspired us to notice them on Mars as well - fire detectors, concrete shelters, etc.
Hackathon was a place with a lot of tech - and a lot of cables for them - Ethernet, power, phones, printers, etc. One issue we immediately noticed, is that everyone was tripping over all of those cables. Astronauts can’t afford “tripping over cables'' - that sparkled us with the idea to propose universal ones - they would be used in our 3D printed lights.
Another big thing was the big climbing wall in this hall. The grips on it inspired us to think about how astronauts will grab things, secure this grip, and how things can attach to other things - without, you know, human hands.
When we had ideas concrete enough, we started bringing them to life. For CAD design, we used OnShape, as it works cross-platform and has nice collaboration features. For prettier designs and previews, we used Blender. Finally, we submit all work on Google Drive as it simply works well.
In some free time we stumbled upon many creative and positive people. We exchanged ideas and stories, which also gave us a ton of inspiration, feedback and positive vibes, which we are very grateful for!
One of the teams has lend us a 3D printed which enabled us bringing our universal connector into life, which is not only effective, but also just sparkles our hearts :)
References
Tags
#3D