MoonRanger
MoonRanger is a first-of-its-kind rover, designed to autonomously carry a NASA science payload across the lunar south pole searching for signs of water. I worked as a part of the mechanical team designing, manufacturing, and testing flight hardware in-house. I loved being a part of this project for both the people and the mission, and it's crazy exciting to think that parts I've made with my own two hands are destined to land on the moon one day!
I started by learning CAD skills and GD&T, creating drawings to send our most complicated parts out to third-party manufacturers. In doing so I also gained experience with common design tropes used in aerospace engineering (gussets, grousers, hollow tubes, spines, etc.) My favorite drawings are included in the gallery below:
Structural testing of the solar panel was also important to ensure that the rover's only power source remained intact through takeoff. The panel structure was made out of a carbon-fiber aluminum honeycomb sandwich panel which has an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio in bending. Adhesives were used to bond the solar PCB to the structure, and each candidate was subject to thermal cycling representative of the mission prior to performing selection testing. Top candidates underwent high-fidelity static load testing as well as vibe tests to prove strength for the flight build. An additional challenge was to build an 'Instron rig' comprised of a load cell and calipers to study the force-displacement profile of a panel segment.
Coupon level tests post thermal cycling
Static Force-Displacement Testing Rig
The next major project I led was developing a stand that could be used for rover assembly, shipping, and lander integration (Nicknamed the RASS). This was an interesting challenge, as the desirable fixture points for shipping were also the parts that would be used in securing the rover to the lander deck. After many 3d printed iterations of the stand, we settled on a support strut design that would bolt to the rover in the same manner as the lander with a locking mechanism that would allow each strut to swing out of the way during assembly/integration. A grid of threaded mounting holes are added for utility as well as an engraving of the robot's coordinate frame to assist with assembly orientation.
Rover Assembly, integration, and Shipping Stand