The Rocket City Space Pioneers (RCSP) lunar rover tasks are moving very quickly. It is exciting to see the many creative ideas everyone is turning into hardware and experimenting with. The best part about designing a lunar rover is there is no “right” way to do it. There are plenty of common and good ways to do it, but the research field for extraterrestrial robotic rovers is still very young. Our toughest design challenges stem from making the rover as light and as energy efficient as possible. Our rover is not much bigger than a shoebox. Our tiny rover will climb into and out of craters that look like the Grand Canyon in comparison to its size while it helps us answer the simple question of “what’s beyond the next hill?” To answer this question, we have many groups working on different parts of the rover. Our partner, Andrews Space, with the help of the University of Washington (UW), is designing our space hardware for the rover. This group’s first prototype will help them test various wheel designs and their mechanical systems. This prototype is truly a lunar rover; it is designed specifically for the moon’s weaker gravity environment. On Earth the prototype rover needs help getting around because its motors are not strong enough to work in Earth’s stronger gravity environment. Here are some of the UW students working on the rover’s assembly: The picture below shows the rover shortly after it was first assembled. The University of Alabama Huntsville (UAHuntsville) is another RCSP partner. A senior design group from the Computer Engineering department is designing and testing some software ideas for us. They are working with an off-the-shelf commercial rover. This ready-made platform lets them focus on the software aspects of the rover without having to worry about the hardware. Their rover uses an accelerometer and a 3D camera to navigate its way through its environment. Their work should be finished at the end of this semester. The team can be seen here at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center with Tim Pickens, RCSP team leader: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=188632534493179&set=a.15759817092... Here is a picture of the Computer Engineering group’s rover. Another group at UAHuntsville called the Center for System Studies is also helping us. They have past experience in building robotic systems. We have recently finished talking with them in order to set up the projects they can help us with. Their work will probably start sometime this summer. This group will also design a rover, but they will use different ideas from Andrews Space and UW. In the end, we will be able to take the best ideas of both rovers and combine them into our final version which will make its way toward the stars. The last group helping us out, but certainly not the least, is the Huntsville Center for Technology (HCT). The Computer Repair and Electronics students are building a rapid prototype rover. Some of their work can be seen here: http://www.rocketcityspacepioneers.com/space/rover-rapid-prototype. The HCT rover will be used to test out all kinds of new ideas. Their rover is very modular and flexible. It will let us try placing sensors in different positions, adjusting its size and weight, as well as trying out lots of different software ideas. This rover will work in Earth’s gravity so it will be able to run around the school. We’ll have to be careful with this so the students do not have “too much fun” with the rover. The universities and Andrews Space are focusing on the theory, engineering, and academic challenges of designing a lunar rover. HCT is focusing on the practicality of the entire rover mission. Once HCT has completed its mock-ups of the lunar landscape (or “moonscape”), our lander, and rover, we will be able to do a complete dry run of the lunar mission. We will be able to physically simulate the entire mission here in Huntsville inside of HCT. This will let us discover and find ways to correct any unpredictable problems with our designs or mission procedures. We expect to publish a fake moon landing toward the end of this year. Hopefully, our video recordings will not have lots of static or shadows cast at odd angles like some previous landings. Working with all these different robotics groups has been a blast. I never know what crazy new idea they’ll come up with next to try out. I am very lucky to be able to work with all these amazing people. By Charles Tullock Rover Systems Integrator Dynetics