Project Summary

Using Fusion 360, we designed a rover wheel to replace the broken one. Additionally, we aimed to satisfy the need for tools and gadgets to be used on missions and maintenance issues. We consulted local industry experts to determine which tools and devices are more commonly used so as to decide and prioritize them accordingly. After deciding what to design, we did research as to what materials would be most efficient for 3 different 3D printers. We concluded that there is enough Iron and Aluminum on the Martian regolith to use as the main materials for our designs. In this way, equipment and tool problems will be relieved, leading to the continuation of the research going with the rover.

Our Hackathon Journey

As a team of 4 freshman students, during the 2-day SpaceApps process, we had many opportunities to acquire many new skills and information, such as academic-level linguistic knowledge, and 3D printing skills. With a chance to demonstrate our investigative spirit, we learned a lot about the Martian regolith and atmosphere, and the conversion of raw Martian materials into usable 3D printing material. We also improved our friendship and communication bonds by working as a team and using the information we learned in practice by showing off our 3D design capabilities to design the most common and important tools, for which we asked our local industry experts to get the most accurate information. In this process, we learned how to work as a team, the subtleties of doing research, and how to use the Fusion 360 program to make 3D designs. We cannot ignore what our friend and team member Poyraz, who has worked on 3D designing before, taught us during the learning phase of 3D designing. It should not be hard to guess that we will choose this duel, considering our interest in space, Mars, and 3D designing as a team. Since the members of our team were already friends with each other, we did not have a major communication problem (we discussed dynamics openly and reached a consensus, and solved minor problems by talking), but our lack of knowledge about 3D design caused us problems at first. However, we overcame these problems by sharing what we know with each other and using the power of our friendship bonds, and we learned a lot about how to design 3D objects in the process.