Team STELLAR was formed in October of 2007 by the leadership of several organizations that have been working together on various other projects for over two years. These organizations included Insight Technologies, The Advanced Vehicle Research Center, several key NC State University faculty members, as well as the NCSU Mechanical Aerospace and Engineering Department.

Since that time, Team STELLAR has developed a management structure, presentation materials, a capabilities/mission overview and a K-12 outreach component. While the Team sees the challenge of Google Lunar X PRIZE as significant, the opportunities for commercial economic development, education and workforce development in New Space are equally significant, and it is our intent to drive a well-organized and well-funded robotic mission to the Moon. Our interest in inspiring younger students with this challenge and our bid is now well-represented by several volunteers from two USFirst K-12 robotics teams, the George Washington High School team from Danville, Virginia, and the Robodogs from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Team STELLAR believes that the Google Lunar X PRIZE may be one of the most important points in commercial space history, and as we look forward we will not forget that we arrived here thanks to our ability to stand ‘on the shoulders of giants’. We are prepared to meet this challenge as ‘one small step’ for the new commercial space industry.

http://www.insightracing.org/
http://www.avrc.com
http://www.mae.ncsu.edu/
http://web.dps.k12.va.us/gwhs/first/homepage.htm
http://robodogs.srhs.net/

Brief Description of Vehicle or Concept:

The Rover will utilize a proprietary design. It will be fitted into a Landing vehicle, which will be fitted into a transfer vehicle, to be integrated into the payload of a launch vehicle. In addition, one of the partners in Team STELLAR, an NSF I/UCRC called ASTREC [Advanced Space Technology for Research and Engineering Center] is interested in supporting the establishment of a communication satellite network in lunar orbit to support this and other missions.

Brief Description of Organization/Team:

The core capabilities of Team STELLAR currently include, but are not limited to:

Insight Technologies:

• Autonomous ground vehicle control systems

• Hardware/Software Integration skills
• Sensor development and integration
• Robotic platforms
• Embedded software systems
• Communications Software
• Navigation and Routing software
• Complex System Design skills
• Real Time video analysis techniques

NCSU - ECE and MAE Engineering support staff:

• Produce integrated, concurrent small satellite design

• Fabrication and validation objectives for improvements in time to orbit
• Lower cost associated with maximum flexibility for design accommodation and performance.
• Research and development of pico- and nano-class satellites with the following subsystems: GNC, communications and C&DH, propulsion, power, and payload.

Advanced Vehicle Research Center / Advanced Aerospace Resource Center:

• Project Management, Commercialization and educational organizations for new energy and propulsion technologies including, but not limited to: Sodium Borohydride Fuel Cell, Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion engine.

TEAM INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SHARING AGREEMENT: All corporate Intellectual Property sponsors and partners will participate in an IP sharing agreement to cover existing IP and derivative IP in the above areas, thus establishing a foundation for a permanent commercial space entity even after the Challenge is won. Team STELLAR will operate under the non-profit organization umbrella of the Advanced Aerospace Resource Center, recently established with the support of the Advanced Vehicle Research Center.

Short biographical outline of Team members.

Dick Dell is the Director of the Advanced Vehicle Research Center. Mr. Dell brings more than 40 years of business and technical experience to the project. Mr. Dell spent more than 22 years with IBM in technical and management positions in field engineering, education, large project management and strategic planning. Leaving IBM in 1988, he founded a consulting business (TGI-USA) to promote international business development. TGI-USA has developed and delivered educational programs to teach strategic planning, project management, and international business development. Mr. Dell has worked in much of Europe and Eastern Europe including England, Holland and Czechoslovakia, and in the Middle East in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait.

Mr. Dell incorporated the AVRC as a North Carolina company in 2002 and has continued to develop the Advanced Vehicle Research Center concept as a research proving ground. The AVRC is now completing a major Department of Energy contract under the Freedom Car program, National Energy Technology Labs. The project has developed a new technology for optimization of ethanol and ethanol/hydrogen systems.

Grayson Randall is a senior software engineer at IBM. Grayson has 26 years experience in systems design and architecture. At IBM, he has worked on projects involved with manufacturing automation, digital video processing, set top box designs, as well as network processors for high speed network communications. He has extensive experience as lead engineer and provided technical leadership on large projects that include leading international teams. He is currently involved in PowerPC processor development. Grayson's work includes nine patents, and several publications. Prior to IBM, Grayson developed commercial and military flight simulators for 5 years. Grayson holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Parks College of St. Louis University.

Grayson is also founder and team leader of Insight Racing. He was responsible for the overall system design and architecture of the team's three autonomous vehicle entries in the DARPA Grand Challenge competition. The team placed twice in the semi-finals and was a finalist in 2005. Grayson also mentored a FIRST high school robotics team for 5 years, which won first place in the 2004 international competition as well as numerous other design awards. Grayson was awarded the IEEE-USA Citation of Honor in 2006. This national award was for inspiring pre-college and college engineering students in the area of robotics. Grayson speaks nationally as part of the IEEE Computer Society's Distinguished Visitor program. Grayson also serves as Chairman of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Chapter for Eastern North Carolina.

Dr. William Edmonson is an Assoc. Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University, and Director of the High Performance Digital Signal Processing Lab (HiPer DSP Lab). Dr. Edmonson has had faculty positions at The City College-CUNY, University of Florida and Hampton University in their Electrical and Computer Engineering Department since receiving his Ph.D. from NC State University in 1990. While at UF, Dr. Edmonson served as faculty advisor for several Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) projects from Motorola and Intellion Corporation.

The IPPD program is an innovative educational experience at UF that allows senior engineering students to utilize the principles of concurrent design, while working in small multidisciplinary teams under the guidance of faculty advisor and industrial liaison engineers, to design and build authentic industrial products for sponsoring companies. In that time he has served as a visiting researcher at Motorola and NASA-Langley performing research in the areas of digital signal processing (DSP) hardware and algorithmic development. In addition, Dr. Edmonson’s research includes mapping of DSP algorithms onto FPGAs or ASICSs, developing global optimization methods for various DSP and control applications, computer architecture for DSP, and systems biology. These research areas have been funded through NASA, Motorola, DARPA, and Dept. of Education. As a member of IEEE he has served as Chair of the Hampton Roads Section and as a reviewer for several of its technical journals.

Dr. Andre Mazzoleni is an Assoc. Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NC State University. His Education includes a Ph.D., Engineering Mechanics, from the University of Wisconsin, 1992, an M.S., Engineering Mechanics, University of Wisconsin, 1990, M.A., Mathematics, University of Wisconsin, 1990, and a B.S., Electrical Engineering, Duke University, 1983. His research interests include Dynamics, Vibrations, Nonlinear Systems, Astronautics, Space Systems Design, Tethered Satellites, Earth-Based Tethered Systems, Lunar and Planetary Rovers, Solar Sails, Biologically-Inspired Autonomous Vehicles and Biomechanics.

Jeff Krukin's space career began in 1981 with IBM at Johnson Space Center. During a 23-year Information Technology career he specialized in strategic business and technology planning and implementation, along with technical sales, marketing, and communications. Jeff left the IT field in 2004 and was Executive Director of the Space Frontier Foundation in 2005-2007. As a NewSpace Business Consultant in North Carolina, he received two grants to educate political, business, and economic development leaders about the NewSpace industry and its potential contributions to the state's economy. He was the primary author of The Aero/Space Economy in North Carolina: A Preliminary Assessment of Current Performance and Future Prospects. Jeff is also an international speaker and well-known writer in the space community. His website is www.jeffkrukin.com.

Richard Dell is a Program Manager for the Advanced Vehicle Research Center and a founder of the Advanced Aerospace Resource Center. His responsibilities for the AVRC include new media development, grant proposals and program management, including a Department of Labor (DOL) Economic Development Agency (EDA) funded Distance Learning Laboratory for automotive workforce development in alternative fuels. He is also developing a Regional Commercially-viable Breakthrough Technology Forum tentatively scheduled to be held at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville, Virginia in Spring 2009. He has also assisted in the development of the AVRC and NADC-funded "State-wide Aerospace Workforce Development Strategy" document, now published at www.avrc.com/NADC_AVRC_Strategic_Plan_v19.pdf

Gordon Jeans is a dual major Senior at NCSU in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, has over ten years experience in all terrain tracked and wheeled vehicles in harsh environments as well as normal operations and is experienced in computers and computer related equipment and software. He has been trained as a non-commissioned officer in leadership and team oriented operations to be able to fill in as needed anywhere in a hierarchical organization.