University of Saskatchewan Space Team - Mars Rover

### DESCRIPTION

The University of Saskatchewan Space Team began building Mars Rover Prototypes in 2013, and are currently on our 5^th  generation rover. This year’s rover, Barnstormer, has had major upgrades to its control, electrical, sample collection,    and drivetrain systems.

### TECHNICAL DETAILS (With project photos)

                        This year’s rover features a new more modular software system, which allows our rover software to be used on our high-altitude balloon and to control Project STARFOX.

Custom tire treads were designed to provide traction in the loose sand as well as grip rocks and boulders. The polyurethane tires are reinforced with Kevlar, to prevent the tread failures which occurred in 2017. Carbon fiber banding is used to increase rigidity to force the growsers deep into loose sand while still allowing the tread to flex and grip the surface of boulders.

The design and prototyping of our new six degree of freedom, robotic arm is well underway. Custom low backlash cycloidal gearboxes have been built and the base motor mounting system assembled. The body of the arm is currently prototyped out of fiber board; the final 2018 arm will be built using layered carbon fiber and fiberglass.

Two drills have been designed for this year’s rover. The main drill is mounted directly to the body of the rover and collects deep stratified soil samples with a light weight carbon fiber and aluminum drilling system. The secondary drill is mounted on the arm of the rover and collects samples from just below the surface to be studied using an infrared reflectometer integrated into the drill system.

The rover’s electrical system has been upgraded with custom circuit boards and wire connectors. Our custom power distribution board has a built-in heat sink and voltmeter. 3D printed wire connectors have been designed to work in low clearance, high vibration, and high dust environments.

Our rover was eliminated during the critical design review phase of the University Rover Challenge, which has lead to the creation of Canada’s first rover challenge. You can read more about the Canadian International Rover Challenge on the following page.

### Words to PCBWay

The custom power distribution board produced by PCB way has helped to reduce the space required for our power distribution system and increased the reliability and safety of our rover prototype.