Lunar Spy

inspiration
prototype
3:00am

Inspiration

Our inspiration came from NASA and its recent interest in lunar caverns. As a team, we knew we wanted to tackle a real world problem, and NASAs Lunar Cave Dilemma popped out to us as one we could solve.

What it does

Our device is designed to maneuver through lunar caverns, capturing LiDAR footage of the environment and mapping it via webserver. We made sure that our device could maneuver through rough and inhospitable terrain with ease, so we included adjustable wheel canting to help with grip on the surface of the moon as well as increased maneuverability in small caves. Additionally, our robot includes an anchor and pulley system, designed to pull the drone out of the cave when the cave exploration has concluded

How we built it

We used our 3d printing expertise to construct a brand new model of robot, using an rPI 5 and a variety of different motors. Our app uses an iPhones lidar sensor to construct real time point clouds.

Challenges we ran into

Many. We did not have enough motors, nor wires to construct our device properly. We ended up constructing our own wires, and running around town to find motors we could use. Although our final product was not what we expected, it was still a success.

Accomplishments we're proud of

Everything we did, we did with passion. We're proud of how we handled all of our tough situations and decisions, and we're proud that we persevered through the hardships

What we learned

We learned a lot about preparedness today. Mostly about hardware components. Working with a team was a challenge at times because one of our teammates worked remotely, but we inevitably got everthing sorted out in the end and learned about what our errors were after we made them.