Won’t You Be MARS’ Valentine? January and February Recap!

Girl Scout Outreach Event

We started off the semester with a bang! ...er, outreach event!

Before classes resumed, a few of our members (including me!) gave a presentation to local high school Girl Scout Troop 559 about the Artemis Mission, the NASA Lunabotics Competition, NASA opportunities for HS and college students. In between the presentation, we gave the troop a tour around Lacy and our club room as well as make them make a robot prototype out of craft supplies! It was a blast hosting the event, and it was especially fun to see the Girl Scouts get really into creating the prototype. It was also fun to see them be super excited about following us on Instagram (which you, dear reader, should do too!). While they may not directly work in STEM-related careers in the future, I hope the event encourages them to not shy away from STEM if they are interested!

CDR

With the new semester came our next major design review: the Critical Design Review (CDR)! Because there were so many final design modifications, FEA (Finite Element Analysis), and other calculations that happened in-between the PDR and the CDR, we decided to split the CDR into two sessions: one that focused on the computer science and electronics of the robot and one that focused on its mechanical aspects. Both sessions were very productive, all thanks to external reviewers Professor Natasha Smith, Professor Joseph Zhu, Professor Keith Williams, Professor Brad Campbell, graduate student Sarah Hemler, and club founder Neeraj Gandhi!

Valentine Volleyball

To celebrate finishing the CDR as well as Valentine’s Day, we hosted another volleyball game: Electrical & Computer vs. Mechanical! Like the last one, Mechanical got utterly destroyed, but everyone had fun playing (even the Mechanical members that were there to get their glasses broken)! While I wish my valentine could make it, MARS was there to fill the void in my heart!

Super Bowl Watch Party

The day after our volleyball game, there was another game on TV: the Super Bowl. MARS members gathered at Mechanical Lead Connor’s apartment for some football, chips, yummy mozzarella sticks, and super fun! While it’s always fun working with other members on the robot, it’s always fun just hanging out and getting to know everyone in a casual setting! MARS is my community, and I hope other members feel the same way about MARS as well!

NSBE Jr Activity

The week after Valentine's Day we hosted an event at the Albemarle’s High School NSBE Jr. chapter. We taught them a bit about the Artemis program and pseudocode and had them build their own solar-powered robots. While there were certainly a bit of road bumps using the solar power part of the robots, thanks to Mrs. Barnes’ great idea in using a halogen lamp for the robot’s light source, their robots were able to move throughout the mock arena! Overall, everyone had a blast (and free pizza)!

Manufacturing + Assembly Time!

Beyond social and outreach events, we’ve been hard at work with starting manufacturing, especially since the waterjet was down for at least two weeks!

For starters, we’ve:

• Started assembling the chassis and the wheels of the robot. The wheels have been quite time-intensive, with aluminum needing to be cut and rolled and cut and rolled…
• Start machining some parts of the construction subsystem responsible for creating the berm to be built in the construction zone.
• Solved bolt interference problems within the construction subsystem.

While we’re a bit behind schedule, I guess you could say that despite the bumps, we’re going at full speed ahead!

Coming up!

While everyone in MARS are currently off grounds for spring break, we have been hard at work making sure everything is done before the Proof of Life deadline! Hope you all stick around for our March recap blog post and follow our social media, but for now, keep an eye on our Proof of Life video! Hehe, we can’t wait to show you the robot soon!

See you all again soon,
Cayla