NASA L'SPACE Mission Concept Academy

Our team was given 12 weeks to design a potential NASA mission to explore Martian caves, write a 150+ page Preliminary Design Review (PDR), and present the PDR to a panel of judges.

Team Accomplishments:

Based on customer provided design constraints such as budget, mass, and volume, our team:

• Formulated mission goal and science objectives

• Selected destination site on Martian surface according to data and images gathered through JMARS

• Designed autonomous robotic exploration system

• Selected heritage NASA science instruments

• Created manufacturing, testing, calibration, and integration plan for each component

• Outlined mission schedule including milestones, launch and arrival dates, and surface operations

• Developed outreach program to engage public and establish support of the mission

My Roles on the Team:

• Deputy Project Manager

• Researcher/Scientist

• Outreach Officer

The Mission Design:

Because the mission is the intellectual property belonging to our entire team, I am unable to fully disclose the mission design. A brief overview is provided here.

• Mission Goal - Determine habitability of Martian caves

• Science Objectives:

  • Measure the amount of radtiation shielding provided by cave roofs

  • Characterize the temperature of cave interiors as compared to the surface

  • Characterize the level of humidity of cave interiors as compared to the surface

• Robotic system - a legged design named "Caveman" with:

  • Command and Data Handling processing unit with autonomous capabilities

  • Navigation & mobility sensors

  • Communication systems

  • Thermal Management systems

  • Power systems

  • Science Instruments:

    1. Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD); a heritage instrument from the 2012 Curiosity rover mission.

    2. Autonomous Climatological Recording Equipment (ACRE); an adapted version of MEDA from the 2020 Perseverance rover mission.

Skills Learned:

• SOFTWARE

  • Siemens NX CAD

  • JMARS

• ENGINGEERING

  • Creating a Preliminary Design Review

  • Defining Design Requirements

  • Identifying and Mitigating Risks, FMEA charts

  • Systems Interfaces and Integration

  • Block Charts and N^2 Charts

  • Gantt Charts and Time Management

• TECHNICAL

  • Research

  • Technical writing

  • Communication

  • Delegation

  • Organization

• TEAMWORK/LEADERSHIP

  • Learn about each person from the very beginning. Learn their "why" for being in the program. This can help you, as a leader and fellow team member, ensure everyone's vision is fulfilled. In addition, it gives you insight on how each individual should be approached to encourage participation.

  • Find out how much time and effort each person is willing and able to contribute. This will help you establish realistic expectations and help you understand each person's circumstances so you can be supportive and gracious to their personal lives.

  • Ask how each team member is doing. A team that works together is much more productive than a collection of people that work separately. The fastest way to glue a team together is to let them know that you care about them.

  • Be clear, decisive, and organized. Delegating specific tasks not only ensures that everything gets done, but also clearly outlines exactly who is responsible for each task. This has two advantages: (1) when a task is falling behind schedule, the team can reinforce the members assigned to that task; (2) each member gains a sense of ownership over their task which increases motivation to get it done.

Mentor: Lucas Reynoso

Collaborators: Bao Le, Ethan Hertanto, Earl Gomez, Emmanual Moreno Jaime, Cade Duncan, Paola Martinez, Jocelyn Mata, Neil Nguyen