Vesta

Antalya | Outfitting a Mars Habitat: A 3D Print Challenge

Awards & Nominations

Vesta has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!

Global Nominee

BRINGING HEARTH TO MARS!

High-Level Project Summary

Our challenge was surviving on Mars with limited sources for a year. So, we designed tools, buildings and complex systems by using Fusion 360 and Arduino. These systems and designs had been constituted to satisfy the needs. For example, we designed a disposal system which allows us to filter out water and leach the soil for agriculture. Moreover, designed an exercise equipment and puzzles for physical activities and personal time needs. We also created tools to repair damages, (tools such as hammer, drill, pliers etc.) and special boxes for storage. We came up with a light based alert system which will warn us about the CO² levels. In total, we have came up with almost 30 original designs.

Link to Final Project

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MQBLNoB9tL0NEtpMnD6w1j4aLduI_cJt/view?usp=sharing

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11ctLhfWUSIapUZT78wmpVWjLxWnPy2iz/view

Detailed Project Description

We created our designs on Fusion 360 and we used Arduino to make a model of the caution-lightning system.

We used a color coding system to show which material be used in which product. Blue tones are representing the plactic parts, metalic and grey ones are representing metal parts and yellow/beige tones represent concrete items. Any other color represents a material that will be obtained from the spacecraft we came on, because there is no other way of obtaining it.

Without further ado, here are all of our designs:

DISPOSAL

1) BIO / NON-BIO DISPOSAL

We designed this building to keep all of our wastes. So, we will not need worry about garbage storage for the whole year.

We separated the biological dispose from the others that aren't. Normally, disposals are buried underneath the earth.

With this building, we won't be polluting Mars' surface.

2) THREE SECTIONED DISPOSAL

This is for indoor disposals. It has three components. The left one is for liquid wastes. The box has light bulbs inside to evaporate the liquid wastes. The middle boxes are for medical and solid garbage storage. The medical disposal will be removed to “Non-Bio Disposal” from the first design. The last part on right, is to sterilize the science equipments.

3) WATER PRUFIER

This system has multiple purposes. First one is to filter out the dirty water and urine. This function allows us to leach the soil with the filtered water. We can use the clean soil to plant vegetables. The second purpose is that, with the same system, we also will be able to sterilize the water and turn it into drinking water.

EXERCISE

We designed this equipment to help the astronaut with their necessary exercise. This 2-in-1 equipment has parts for leg and arms exercises.

PERSONAL TIME

1) HAMMOCK-BED

We designed a hammock with belts which can be used as a bed. What makes this hammock so special is that the astronaut can sleep in it even without gravity! The red leather shown on the hammock bed is to represent the fabric we would gather from the spacecraft we arrive on Mars with.

2) PILLOW-BLANKET PAIR

This pillow can turn into a blanket by unzipping the sides and unfolding it! That is a big plus for living in space.

3) OTHER PERSONAL ITEMS

On the puzzle and solo test, we chose to get out of our color coding to distinguish the fun parts of the simple toys we've designed. This does not mean we won't be printing those out with the plastic printer.

MEAL PREPARATION

We figured we'd need to preserve our food. For that, we designed this box to keep the food. This will let us store the food even without gravity.

TOOLBOX

For our toolbox, we decided to use ergonomic, easy to grip handles on our selection of items that every mechanic would need.

GENERAL FURNITURE

In this part, we created some furniture to help assist astronauts during the mission.

REPLACEMENT ROVER WHEEL

For our replacement rover wheel, we did research on the rovers Preservence and Curiosity to discover how their wheels have bumps and a texture that would help the wheel grip the ground. So, we came up with our own wheel design and even put our logo on it!

In addition to the designs we have introduced so far, we have come up with a flexible tube system. We know we don't have a lot of resources, especially flexible material so we came up with a multi part tube system. You print each node seperately and after installing the nodes into each other, you get a relatively flexible tube.

We developed this idea because we thought we may need to fix and/or install them during the mission.

LIGHT BASED-CAUTION SYSTEM

We made a system to analyze the air. This system can evaluate the air inside and if the C02 or another unhealthy gas is too much, it gives us a feedback. The led light turns on.

We are linking our project's 3D Models on here.

On this Google drive folder, you can see any and all details about our designs. We have categorised our designs based on their usage and attributes and in .stl format for easy access. We have also included professional renders of our products that we used in our final video.

Space Agency Data

We had a big and detailed searching process in order collect all the important data we need. We specially used NASA's resources. Since our mission in this challenge is to create equipments and provide a better living space for the astronauts in Mars, we specially focused on the equipments and pieces they'll need. We got our inspiration and the information for the important material needs from NASA's data panel, from the previous space missions. In order to design our disposal area and the water filtering system, we got our inspiration from the similar systems which are used in space shuttles. We created a sport equipment, getting inspired by the other ones astronauts use. For personal needs, we gathered information from NASA and JAXA's websites and combined some with our own ideas.

Hackathon Journey

This was our first time participating in Space Apps in person, which was a whole new and a really fun experience for all of us! Space Apps Challenge always shows us how important team work is. We wanted to have our own little merchandise, 3D printed our team logo and made our bracelets! Also printed out our brochures~ We all love being creative and are into designing so this challenge was perfect for us. We wanted to create all personal needs and equipments an astronaut would need in space, especially in Mars, but considering us having limited materials. Our team worked synced and neatly during the whole process and was able to finish everything on time. We also would like to thank the Space Apps team for coming up with a really amazing event concept and all our teachers Mr. Selman Canlı for his kind opinions and Mr. Cem Yurtlak for his support.