In our first Planetary Exploration Project, our team must design an efficient transportation method on a foreign celestial body, both without wasting excess energy and without wasting time, capable of a 5-kilometre-long round trip on Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons. This vehicle must handle extreme conditions including temperatures as low as -180C, low gravity(a tenth of Earth’s), rocky terrain, and interference from the planet’s magnetic field affecting electronics.
TESTING STATEMENT:
We are testing the vehicle’s capability of navigating icy and rocky terrain, conditions similar to those of Ganymede.
HOW ARE WE TESTING IT?
To test these different criteria, we’ve decided on using small ice cubes to mimic the frozen terrain of Ganymede. We’ll also use larger rocks to mimic craters or obstacles to measure the vehicles capability of efficiently steering around them.
Some tests to be conducted in the future would be extensive radiation testing. The strong magnetic field discovered on Ganymede could prove troublesome for our current method operation.
Another test would be extreme temperature testing, but as stated before, these are possible tests done in the future, further along the prototyping process, outside the purview of this course.
LIST OF IDEAS:
- Jetpack
- Car with 4 axles
- Drone
- Plane
- Low psi tires
- Spiked tires
- G wagon type design for body
- Double wishbone suspension for optimal comfort/offroading capabilities
- High clearance
We narrowed this down to something that would be easy for us to design, test and prototype. A familiar design, built upon the discoveries and evolution of offroad vehicles found on Earth today, built to withstand the harshest conditions we could throw at them.
The first step is to design what the shell for the vehicle would look like. We decided on a “mininvan” shaped design to help store all the equipment and fuel necessary to operate the vehicle.
Afterward, we would attach the offroad aspect to this minivan. It would be elevated for clearance purposes and then four offroad tires with a double wishbone suspension system. In our prototype, we’ve elected to use the base of an RC vehicle to allow us to control the vehicle during our tests.
Basic 3d model of what the shell is to look like (To be changed)
Mechanical drawing of the shell. Bill of Materials included below.
Bill Of Materials:
PLA For the shell of the car
Velcro
RC car (Already have)
Gorilla Glue
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