By Inna Echual (Project Manager) Table of Contents Project Overview Executive Summary Project Objective The design of the Fall 2016 Pathfinder project was taken directly from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit. The Pathfinder will be designed to be self-sufficient using solar panels, as well as implement the solar deployment mechanism employed by the […]
By Ridwan Maassarani (Design and Manufacturing) Approved by Inna Echual (Project Manager) As a requirement, solar panels had to be manufactured that is of the same form factor as the spirit and opportunity mars rovers that were designed by NASA. To accomplish this, my team and I visited JPL and was able to find model […]
By Ridwan Maassarani (Design and Manufacturing) Approved by Inna Echual (Project Manager) A custom PCB that can drive five stepper motors was needed to reduce the footprint on the rover. The custom PCB would also cut down on cost since stepper motor drivers that can run 3 or more motors can gen expensive. It was […]
By Ridwan Maassarani (Design and Manufacturing) Approved by Inna Echual (Project Manager) Table of Contents Introduction In order to secure the cells onto the panel, one must consider the way of “sandwiching” the cells onto place. A rubber substrate was used for insulating the solar cells from the aluminum sheet. Here, I will review the […]
By Stephan Khamis (Missions, Systems, and Test) Approved by Inna Echual (Project Manager) Introduction This blog post contains our most up-to-date requirements for the Solar Panel system of the Pathfinder project. Within this blog post you will learn about the changes we have made since the CDR to update this document. Updated Requirements Solar Panel […]
By Stephan Khamis (Mission, Systems, and Test) Approved By Inna Echual (Project Manager) Table of Contents Introduction As a result the feedback we received during the critical design review (CDR), we decided the system block diagram for our system. This blog post contains our most up-to-date system block diagram for the Solar Panel system of […]
By Stephan Khamis (Mission, Systems, and Test) Approved by Inna Echual (Project Manager) Table of Contents Introduction This blog post contains our most up-to-date product breakdown structure for the Solar Panel system of the Pathfinder project. Within this blog post you will learn about the changes we have made since the critical design review (CDR) to […]
By Stephan Khamis (Mission, Systems, and Test) Approved by Inna Echual (Project Manager) Table of Contents Introduction This blog post contains our most up-to-date software block diagram (SBD) for the Solar Panel system of the Pathfinder project. Within this blog post you will learn about the changes we have made since the CDR to update […]
By Jose Rodriguez (Electronics & Control) Approved By Inna Echual (Project Manager) Objective: Because of our current design, a port expander is needed because there are no more available pins on our Arduino to read data from the reed switches. The reed switches will be used to halt the panels from cocooning more than it needs […]
By Ridwan Maassarani (Design & Manufacturing) Edited and Approved By Inna Echual (Project Manager) Objective: The thickness of our panels must be carefully chosen as “too large” of a thickness could result in additional weight, possibly causing unnecessary strain and bending. Though the chassis could withstand our panels weight a maximum 50 lbs (as stated by the chassis […]