A team of astronauts need a form of transportation that is able to efficiently cover a minimum round trip distance of 5km from point A to point B. This form of transportation must be able to overcome the 3% Earth gravity of Ceres, below -105°C temperatures, rocky terrain and make the most of its limited power sources.
Graveyard of Ideas 🪦
Jet propulsion: A vehicle centered around utilizing the low gravity of Ceres in order to move around
Cause of death: Although this idea seems promising, there were 2 notable drawbacks; flying a vehicle in the low gravity of Ceres poses the risk of simply flying out into orbit, and building small scale rockets for our prototype would be almost impossible.
Tank wheels: A large vehicle that uses tank wheels in order to move around. Imagine a tank without a cannon, but bigger.
Cause of death: Tanks are designed to move on uneven, rough terrain, which led to this idea seeming quite promising. However, the craters on Ceres are far larger than any obstacle a tank would need to traverse over. Furthermore, with only two “wheels”, (one on each side) the risk that a damaged wheel poses would be far greater, since we would be stuck moving in circles with just one functional wheel.
Spider-like robot: Moves with legs, utilizes compartments on legs in order to retrieve ground samples, do repairs, etc.
Cause of death: Although this idea was one of if not the most promising idea, several issues arise, especially when designing a prototype. First of all, the technology required to allow limbs to move nimbly at such a small scale is either extremely hard to procure, doesn’t exist, or is extremely hard to code/use. Furthermore, more moving parts = increased risk of damage due to sheer volume.
Final Idea 💡
Modified rover: A vehicle with high suspension and large wheels, similar to a monster truck, but on a larger scale. Utilizing sliding doors and all around mirrors, this vehicle minimizes wasted space and makes good use of all its materials.
Cause of health: We decided that this idea would work best for several reasons. First, taking inspiration from something widely known like a monster truck would aid greatly in design, manufacturing, and innovation. Using a well known vehicle as our inspiration would allow us to easily communicate our ideas, as well as have something that we can physically examine and alter. Furthermore, monster trucks have extremely soft suspension, allowing its tires to tilt, turn, and bend at far larger angles compared to a regular car, or even a tank. This would aid us greatly in traveling over a rough, crater ridden terrain.
What do we want to test? 📋
Our vehicle is intended to test the mobility and navigation, energy efficiency, durability and material integrity, and communication systems of crewed vehicles in extreme extraterrestrial environments.
How will we test this? 📋
We are constructing a simulated environment of Ceres’ surface, which will be used in order to test the functionality of our rover. By creating a rough surface filled with craters and loose rock, we will be able to test the agility/mobility of our vehicle, ensure the functionality of our navigation system, energy efficiency, and material integrity.
Mechanical Drawing ⚙️
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