A&AE 450 – Senior Design Team ERV Science and communication January 23, 2000 Christopher Burnside

Science & Communication Areas of current research Auxiliary rover design Auxiliary rover uses Wagon concept vehicle Communication with rover Non-interactive science payloads Weight estimates Cost estimates Failure estimates

Auxiliary Rover Uses Search and rescue operations (hopefully never) Carried by main rover on extended missions for higher effectiveness science Short excursions from the main base General labor assistance Used in place of the main rover during scheduled rover preventive maintenance times “Hazardous missions” – no mission will put the crew in excess danger, but the rovers might be placed in danger.

Rover Design 4-wheel vs. 3-wheel rover vs. Treads Stability and safety issues Maneuverability Higher speed (treads generally are slower) “Dune buggy” type design More inclined to a 4 wheel design Unpressurized Shorter range than main rover Reliability on the order of road cars (if built and maintained properly) A “good” earth buggy from a dealer costs $9215 US ~ 150 kg (330 earth lbs.) Pictures from (authors are unknown)

Mars Wagon Used to carry: Raw material Science equipment Samples Just about anything else This is triton trailer found at Can be used on extended missions with the rovers General labor around the base Design similar to a flatbed trailer on earth Range in cost from $100 to $10,000 depending on quality ~40 kg (90 lbs.) Reliability on the order of trailers on earth (~.95)

Rover Communication 3 levels of communication redundancy Satellite Allows direct communication with earth and mars base Easy with a good satellite infrastructure NASA has already started with global surveyor – it has a navigation beacon on it Initial navigation Quality initial navigation units cost around than $14,000 Short-wave radio Lightweight, cheap and easy to use Low-band width is a con $40 to $1500 is a typical cost Radioshack short- wave receiver BEI multi-axis inertial sensing system NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor

Non-interactive Science Science packages can be flown which require little human interaction SPADUS – space dust and energetic particle experiment Taylor university – Dr. Voss, head of space science research Currently flying and projecting orbits of micrometeorites ~25 lbs Meteorological experiments Find the weather for 2 years at the landing site prior to landing as well as during the mission Others, but since they are not mission critical a total weight will be determined for all non-interactive science ~100 lbs possibly

Future Directions Sizing code for auxiliary rover Explore more uses for an auxiliary rover Demonstrate actual need of the wagon Size the wagon Communication frequencies of satellite, short-wave radio Compute the accuracy vs. Drift of rate gyros. (How close can you get to the base starting from 400 km away) Cost, failure, weight analysis of communication equipment Determine best total weight for non-critical science packages

Comments Experience Science & com EE 201 Hobby electronics C/MATLAB programming Taylor connections Lots of interest AutoCAD, Surfcam, CNC, model airplanes Science is of prime importance and is a broad subject. Ideas for science can be expressed and will be considered.