Lunar X Prize

Brian_B

Hi,
·Any propeller heads want to help program some of the testing software for the rover ?

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Thank's Brian


http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/lunarX/

·"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ·· Albert Einstein

http://www.diycalculator.com/subroutines.shtml· My favorite website ( Bet you can't guess why)

rjo_

Imaging?

What is LunarX?

Rich

hippy

www.googlelunarxprize.org

There's $30 million USD up for grabs, so before I commit myself ... how are we divying up the prize money ?

[noparse]:)[/noparse]

rjo_

50-50

Brian_B

You guys crack me up :-)

Rover video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CKO67FwFhc


Lunar X website

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/


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Thank's Brian


http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/lunarX/

·"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ·· Albert Einstein

http://www.diycalculator.com/subroutines.shtml· My favorite website ( Bet you can't guess why)


Post Edited (Brian Beckius) : 11/25/2007 1:51:00 PM GMT

Drone

I seem to remember a recent post that the Propeller meets some Mil-Spec temperature requirements. But I do not think the Propeller is "Space Qualified" in terms of radiation hardness etc. Typically "small" satellites use fusable link CPLD/FPGAs a lot as they can survivie radiation, and hardended microcontrollers etc. along with a redundant RTOS. Some microsatellites have gone up with COTS processers and lots of shielding (weight=cost tradeoff) but I don't think the required longevity of a Lunar rover would lend well to these techniques. Putting microcontrollers/processors outside the Earth's atmosphere for significant periods of time is quite challenging hardware-wise; and as a result - costly. Amsat at www.amsat.org scales these slopes.

But if you're only soliciting programmers to test/dev code on a non-Propeller platform for the rover project; then from what I've seen, Propeller-Heads herein are brilliant. You came to the right place.

David

Brian_B

The only way we have a shot of wining this is speed. We won’t win this by having the most perfect rover. I’m talking with people of how to get the propeller through the Van Allen Radiation belt (I’m on probably 15 list servers, including AMSAT’s). Right now my focus is getting the rover on the ground and running day & night. I’m not saying this rover is the design that will go to the moon, but it will be a good test platform. The faster we get rolling, the better chance we have to secure funding and I would bet that with all the new rocket companies we might be able to catch a free ride. The propeller is a fast platform to work with and has a ton of very smart people working with it.

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Thank's Brian


http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/lunarX/

·"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ·· Albert Einstein

http://www.diycalculator.com/subroutines.shtml· My favorite website ( Bet you can't guess why)

rjo_

Brian...

I looked at the rover video... what a beast. Who made it?

1st prize is only $20M until Dec. 31. 2012. And that is for the entire mission. The rover is the cheap and easy part, AND it only has to go 500 meters. If you pick the right transmitter, the whole thing could fit in the palms of your hands.

The imaging requirements would be trivial for this group, but I think we need an official set of rules...the actual "rules" are still being "vetted."
If we do this the way they seem to want us to do it... then we should solicit a camera company to provide the hardware. Personally, I think we should wait until the rules are finalized and then find a way around them[noparse]:)[/noparse]

Sign me up... and then let's get some sponsors[noparse]:)[/noparse]

Rich

Brian_B

rjo_,
·Welcome aboard
·· I built that rover , It should work good for PR

As far as rules go , I raced snowmobiles in my younger years . The biggest ,sneakest cheater allways won

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Thank's Brian


http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/lunarX/

·"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ·· Albert Einstein

http://www.diycalculator.com/subroutines.shtml· My favorite website ( Bet you can't guess why)

LewisD

Hi Brian,

From your bio. I see your from Minnesota.
I live in the Twin Cities , specifically in Maplewood.
I would like to help in any way I can.
I'm also a member of the Twin Cities Robotics Group (http://www.tcrobots.org/).
We meet at the Minnesota Science Center on the third Thursday of the month.

Thanks

LewisD

PS. I like your Robot chassis [noparse]:)[/noparse]

rjo_

Brian,

The reason I asked is that your rover has an uncanny appearance to a proposed troop/ordinance carrier[noparse]:)[/noparse] A modular design, with plug and play options.

That is one sweet Rover. Any thoughts about releasing it in kit form? Do you have leasing options?

How is the drop testing going?

Team,

We need a name for our group... how bout "Lunarticks?" (implying that it is only a matter of time before we get there or perhaps that we do our best thinking during periods of the full moon?)

I've begun with some preliminary design choices. These are final.

We are going want a fairly cheap launch platform. So, last night I went to my RadioShack and picked up a Memsic 2D inertia guidance system... $30. So far, our net is $19,999,970. Remember that is before we pay for the fuel. Please see attached invoice.

As long as we go straight up, we should be fine. We are going to have to limit ourselves to 2 g though, which I think is best for the camera system as well. I am designing this as a VFR rocket, so we shouldn't need a gyro: just point it at the moon and drive it like a bus. Night launches are prettier anyway.

I am planning to mount the accelerometer to my car's guidance system... just to make sure it works. After that it is just a matter of choosing a rocket and mounting the cameras.



Rich

rjo_

I've been thinking about this... the rover... check.
the cameras... check.
communications... check.
launch system... we might need some help[noparse]:)[/noparse]

Rich