February 19, 1998

NC State Team Designs Construction of Lunar Habitat

Students and faculty at NC State are shooting for the moon as they create plans that may help NASA develop a lunar station. The team of students and faculty from a broad range of disciplines, including students and faculty from electrical and computer engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering, civil engineering and the School of Design, has developed prototypes of a robot, lunar lander and habitat module to create NASA's proposed living quarters for astronauts and researchers on the moon.

The team has taken the name HELIOS, an acronym for Habitat Exploration Leaders in Outer Space and a reference to the Greek god of the sun. Their mission is to compete in the Space '98 Robotics Competition, a national competition sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the American Society of Civil Engineers that will be held in Albuquerque, NM, April 26-30. NASA and ASCE sponsor the event as part of the national Space Education Initiative. The ideas generated by the student teams will be reviewed by NASA personnel and members of the aerospace industry in the effort to meet NASA's goal of making the moon habitable by the year 2010.

"Our designs or modifications of our designs could be what NASA uses to create the first lunar station," says Jason Janet, HELIOS adviser and doctoral candidate in electrical engineering. "It is exciting to play a part in the future of space exploration."

The competition, which is run similarly to calls for government design contracts, is designed to raise the awareness of future engineering opportunities in space by challenging students in traditionally non-space-related engineering disciplines to apply their skills toward the solution of space-based problems. NASA has provided a set of specifications, and each team must present design proposals and demonstrate proof-of-concept using 1/12th scale prototypes. NC State's HELIOS team will compete with other major engineering universities to see which team can create engineering plans and working models of everything needed to build a home on the moon for researchers and space travelers.

"Our multidisciplinary approach to design and development more closely matches the industry approach to engineering in which teams of engineers from different disciplines develop solutions to complex problems," says Dr. William Allen, HELIOS adviser and director of the Undergraduate Design Center in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "This gives our students invaluable experience for when they leave the university environment and go into industry careers."

Allen and Janet have been working with the group since 1996. Other HELIOS faculty advisers include mechanical and aerospace engineering professors, Dr. Abdel Bayoumi and Dr. Gordon Lee; Bryan Laffitte, associate professor of industrial design; Dr. Philip Lambe, associate professor of civil engineering; and James Tomlinson, research director of the School of Design Research Laboratory. At the center of the HELIOS team's project is a remote-controlled robot named Thumper. About the size of a small dog, Thumper is a scale model of the machine designed by the NC State team to do all of the assembly and excavation of a lunar habitat before any humans return to the moon.

Thumper is the first student-machined and manufactured vehicle to be used in the competition. The other universities' teams have used toy remote-control vehicles, modifying them by adding excavation and off-loading equipment. Unlike the competitors' modified toys, Thumper has variable speed control and can work completely untethered. In addition, Thumper sports an on-board video camera with a radio-frequency video link, an extendible boom with a dual-purpose bucket that can both transport the habitat and excavate soil, and a six-wheel positive-traction drive system for better maneuverability.

NC State's team believes it has an edge over the competition because of the extra elements they have built into their design and engineering plan. They have gone beyond the assigned task of building a robot capable of off-loading and covering a habitat module, adding ways to conserve energy when building the habitat and provide extra power sources for the habitat and the robot. Many of the components of the rover, lander and habitat were fabricated by students in laboratories on NC State campus. Some parts were custom-machined to fit a specialized task. They also have a movie-quality, computer-generated animation, created by School of Design team members, that illustrates the functions of the lander, vehicle and habitat.

For students from the School of Design, the project has provided the opportunity to interact with a broad range of technical disciplines, preparing them for the type of team-based problem solving that is often encountered in industry settings. They also learned how their discipline can enhance the design process by helping members better communicate their ideas.

"When you bring together a team comprised of a broad range of technical disciplines, communication barriers are bound to come as well," says Laffitte. "One of the keys to making teams effective is to make the design process visible so that all can contribute. Through the use of such brainstorming techniques as concept sketching and quick mock-ups, the participants from the School of Design were able to contribute to the form of the design process as well as to the form of the final product."

As part of the scenario provided by NASA, the habitat must be covered with a uniform layer of soil to prevent damage from deadly Solar Proton Events (SPEs) that would be encountered on the lunar surface. To accomplish this, Thumper must be able to excavate soil and bury the habitat--a task that has proven difficult for all competitors in the past--presenting yet another engineering problem for the group.

The NC State team is keeping the designs simple and multifunctional in order to complete the entire mission in the short time they have before the April competition. They have designed retainer walls to reduce the soil needed to cover and protect the habitat modules from SPEs. Other solutions include a plan to extend the usefulness of the lunar landers by fitting them with solar panels that collect and store power to recharge the robot and provide a backup power source.

"We are excited about our design," says Janet. "We have made some important modifications to the robot rover that address many of the problems encountered in previous competitions."

Link to related story at WRAL Online.

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