Team Rocket

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  The design challenge.

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  Our design solution.

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  The team brainstorming!

Inspiration

Getting a large habitat from a landing vehicle down to the surface of Mars is a commonly overlooked yet major challenge. We took on this challenge to help design the necessary infrastructure for this critical future mission.

What it does

The system that we designed uses a dual-boom, self-stabilizing crane to lower the 90 ton NASA Common Habitat ~33 meters to the surface of Mars.

How we built it

We conceptualized this design using 2D schematics, diagrams, and 3D modeling software (Fusion 360). We used our digital model to 3D print a physical representation of our design.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge of this project was to create a crane system that fit within the weight requirement of 10 tons, while also preventing the tipping of the SpaceX Starship during the lowering process. We solved this problem by utilizing the Starship nosecone as a container for Martian regolith: lowering it to the ground and filling it with dirt to use as a counterweight.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the work ensuring that this design is feasible and realistic. We conducted some simplified analyses of material strength, stress, and strain to ultimately conclude that our design is capable of functioning on the surface of Mars.

What we learned

For most of us, this was our first hackathon and we learned a lot about the brainstorming and teamwork process. We were able to utilize individual team member strengths to effectively delegate work and put together a strong proposal.

What's next for JSC Design Challenge: Lowering the Hab

Forward work involves a re-design of the truss to make better use of tension and materials to fully capitalize on weight and load requirements, as well as selecting motor specifications for the lowering systems. We also need to add wheels to the habitat to facilitate lowering and disembarking, as well as to help transition the habitat from horizontal to vertical. Finally, contingency plans must be designed in order to account for landing on uneven surfaces.

Built With

• 3d-printing
• autodesk-fusion-360
• powerpoint
• whiteboard