Field campaign has finally started. Stay tuned for the sintering results!
IGLUNA 2021
Newsletter Mai 2021
Dear supporters of WARR Exploration,
We are back with a new newsletter to update you on our progress towards the IGLUNA 21 Field Campaign. Due to Corona, we had a hard time manufacturing our rover LARSS as only three people were allowed to enter our WARRkstatt. Despite this, we managed to manufacture the rover before the Readiness Review which is going to take place on the 4th of June. Now, our electrical engineers and programmers are integrating the motors and PCBs, fixing some small last bugs, and testing everything to ensure smooth functioning at the field campaign. Below, you find some images taken during manufacturing.
Insights
Front view of our rover and the payload.
LARSS compared to ESA´s ExoMy.
Top view of LARSS.
Closer look on the wheel profiles developed by our terramechanic expert.
We are looking for new members
To all TUM students passionate about space exploration, we are looking for you. Join our highly motivated and interdisciplinary team to design a future rover. At WARR Exploration, you will gain hands-on experience in designing, developing, and manufacturing a rover to demonstrate space exploration applications. You will start right away with building an ExoMy (a small version of the Mars Rover of ESA and Roskosmos) as part of your introductory phase. For more information, visit our kick-off on April 26th at 6 pm CEST, or simply contact us via E-Mail or our social media channels. Kick-Off: zoom.us/my/warr.exploration (26.04.2021, 18:00 CEST)
Newsletter January 2021
Dear supporters of WARR Exploration,
Hopefully, you all have started the new year well and healthy. For us, the year began with fantastic news: We are pleased to welcome Orbit Recycling as our second industrial partner. Orbit Recycling is a small company, founded and lead by Frank Koch, that tries to clean up our orbit by transporting aluminum to the moon and recycling it there with Fresnel lenses. By following this approach, he expects to save ESA a lot of money and make building lunar habitats more attractive to decision-makers. To melt and sinter aluminum Orbit Recycling is developing a structure with a Fresnel lens, which is very similar to our payload. Due to the ongoing lockdown, our production and testing activities are limited to those that we can do in our homes. In the event that the lockdown continues into the beginning of March, we could experience troubles manufacturing all mechanical components in our WARRkstatt on time. Therefore, we are currently looking for production partners to outsource some production steps and to be able to meet the deadlines set by IGLUNA.
Recent Works
For the past few months, the subteam EPS has been working on a PCB to observe and control the whole operation of the electronic power system. The Covid situation did not make it easier to order and manufacture this monitoring module. Currently, the students of EPS are working on testing the PCB and writing the software for the chosen STM32 microcontroller. The picture on the right side shows the layout of this PCB, which was designed with the suite EAGLE.
Having passed the internal review of the Propulsion and Chassis (PC) and Payload (PL) teams, their students are currently evaluating ways to lower the total mass and to further optimize the mechanical parts. This process includes FEM analyses as well as topology studies. The picture on the left shows a FEM analysis of our suspension.
As part of the Software for IGLUNA, we developed our own Graphical User Interface for controlling the Rover. As of yet, this consists of data visualization, steering the Rover as a whole and controlling individual motors. With a focus on customizability and comprehensive feedback, this tool will allow us to closely observe the Rover during Operations.
Newsletter December 2020
Dear supporters of WARR Exploration,
During such difficult times good news is rare, but fortunately we have some: We passed the delta PDR for IGLUNA 2021 and are now on track to convince our reviewers once more at the CDR, which will take place virtually on February 19th. Unfortunately, our workshop had to be closed completely from December 8th onwards; it is not clear when we are allowed to work there again. But we hope that the lockdown will end on January 10th.
Nevertheless, we wish you and your family Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Stay healthy,
Your WARR Exploration team
Despite the tough social distancing restrictions on working in our workshop, we managed to finish our prototype. Furthermore, we published our new promotional video, which you can watch on YouTube.
Propulsion and Chassis (PC) is currently developing a new iteration of its system. Based on the existing prototype, new functions will be added and old ones will be improved. One such feature will be a torque motor to actuate the steering movement. Its short axial length will allow us to drastically lower the rover’s center of mass.
Structural parts of the new rover will be manufactured using more sophisticated methods. FEM analysis and topology optimization will assist us in optimizing the geometry of the parts and reducing the weight of the rover. We will also integrate the electronics housing into the suspension design, which will reduce weight, size, and the risk of collisions with other parts of the kinematic system.
