High-Level Project Summary
We have a preconstructed habitat on mars. Other than the three 3d printers we do not have most of the things to live. But the metal supply is limited. That’s why we have decided to use a multitasking Hammer, integrated with a knife and a Screwdriver where each of them can separately be used. The wheels' grouser design has been developed so that the expert can identify the motion direction of the mars-rover. And our designed furniture can be transformed into other furniture. We designed a toolbox that is a part of fun game for the astronaut, we used a scrabble maze game and the lower part of the toolbox has a Xenophone to play music.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
Wheel:
The wheels are designed specifically for the uneven surface of the Red Planet. Each wheel has a diameter of 127 mm with a thickness of 7mm and the diameter of the rim is 113 mm with a thickness of 5mm. The length of the wheel is 74.5 mm and the length of the rim is 15 mm [1]. It features 12 grousers machined into its surface to provide outstanding traction with the land surface. The wheels are run by the high torque BLDC motor. The outer part wheels are made of Aluminium alloy and the rim is made of titanium alloy to give it strength and durability by the metal 3d printer. The grousers of the wheel are 4.5 mm thick with a height of 16.5mm. The grousers are designed in such a way that when the rover moves forward and backward it leaves a pattern[4]. As the aluminum wheels got damaged in the Curiosity Rover due to the harsh terrain of Mars and rocky surfaces. There are 6 spokes in the wheel to act as a wheel shock absorber. The spokes of the wheel are also made from titanium for enhanced durability and strength. The curve spokes are made in such a way that it gives proper springy support to the outer wheels. The spokes of the wheels are bolted along the midway of the wheel to eradicate any risk of tip-over of the wheels or any off-balance [2].
Multi Toolbox:
The multi-tool box has been designed in such a way that it can be part of a fun game. We have merged the concept of the scrabble board and the maze game here. There are some stable blocks which are some movable letter blocks & a red special block that is also movable. We have to make a path, by making meaningful words, which leads the red block to the finishing point.
Multi Tasking Hammer:
In space, we need various tools for space missions to be done successfully. But it needs to be done in an efficient way. A multi-tasking tool can help here. We have developed a multi-tasking hammer design where a knife and also a screwdriver will be integrated as a part. Its total length is around 43cm. Its diameter is kept at 45mm because it gives good gripping Astronauts can separate the hammer by giving it a twisting moment. The knife can also be separated by astronauts when needed. There is a screwdriver within the hammer handle and also the end portion of the hammer contains a multi-head for the screwdriver. We will use a metal 3d printer for the hammer neck. The knife is made of metal by a metal 3d printer. The handle, shank, and heads of the screwdriver are made of metal 3d printers. But the head container, hammer handle, and handle of the screwdriver are made of plastic 3d printers. As we have a limited metal supply, we have to minimize the metal consumption.
Multipurpose Furniture:
To stay 1 year on mars, there needed enough furniture to live well. So we introduce to you the multipurpose furniture. This furniture can be used as a bed, workbench, drawer, cabinet, seating tool, and clothing hook. The cabinet can be converted into a chair with the help of a drawer attached to it. The drawer and the cabinet are made with a plastic 3D printer and a lot of small pieces are attached together for small allowances. The chair seat is kept 110 degrees aligned with the vertical axis to make the seat comfortable on mars. The only stationary part of the furniture is the workbench which is made with a concrete 3D printer. But as a designer, we are not satisfied with this type of design. So we introduce to you the OMNIBLOCK which is inspired by lego-like building blocks. With this type of block, many pieces of furniture like a table, chair, bed, etc can be made. The best part of this type of design is it can save up to 40% of the material and can be transformed into any type of furniture and its mobility. So we think these two types of concept is enough to solve the furniture problem in the mars habitat
Space Agency Data
- Perseverance wheel: Information about wheel dimension and materials have been taken from that source.
- NASA 3D Resources: The wheel ,we have designed, follows the dimension given here.
- Curiosity Rover: This resource has also been studied to design the outer part of the wheel.
Hackathon Journey
We are a team with fully enthusiastic and versatile members who really believe in innovation. We always think of creating a better solution of any existing problem. For that reason the outer earth has always been a very interesting topic for us as we always looked for a better solution.
Recently we can see a lot of mars exploration missions by the likes of perseverance rover, Ingenuity etc. We are day by day stepping closer to land our feet in mars. So there are lots of missions including building a habitat in mars, that we share our interest in. When we found out there is a competition going on Nasa space apps challenge about this topic, we could not resist to take the challenge and participate into it. We formed our "team Nokkhotro" and participated in our first ever NASA space apps challenge.
To participate in that challenge 1stly we had to go through the NASA space apps challenge Bangladesh, the regional selection. We tried our best to do researches, analyze the data, innovating new things and finally showed our design skills to give a sustainable, cabinating and material modulating solution to the challenge “Outfitting Mars Habitat”.
We sincerely appreciate BASIS's support of Space Apps Bangladesh, as well as their tremendous mentoring and guidance throughout the project.
References
Tags
#hardware #space_exploratoin