Restricted Research - Award List, Note/Discussion Page
Fiscal Year: 2023
358 The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (142246)
Principal Investigator: Crown,Stephen W
Total Amount of Contract, Award, or Gift (Annual before 2011): $ 1,500
Exceeds $250,000 (Is it flagged?): No
Start and End Dates: 12/2/22 - 12/1/23
Restricted Research: YES
Academic Discipline: Mechanical Engineering
Department, Center, School, or Institute: Mechanical Engineering
Title of Contract, Award, or Gift: NASA Minds- Team Vaqueros
Name of Granting or Contracting Agency/Entity:
Natl Aeronautics & Space Administration
CFDA: n/a
Program Title: n/a
Note:
SAMs- 1.1.1 As NASA continues to send machinery to the moon to set the path for the Artemis Mission, these payloads need to land on the strategic desired area for higher chances of success. To deliver lunar equipment safely and directly, an autonomous control system, along with a set of thrusters and sensors, must be set on the Landers for effective vectorized motion. There is a gap in technology when it comes to landing NASA objects on the moon. Neil Armstrong, NASA Astronaut, was the first to experience the difficulties of landing on the moon when he had to manually pilot his spacecraft to a good landing area. The problem is that a spacecraft on the moon requires a greater tilt angle to move than it would on Earth. An important message he gave us was that we are far from creating a perfect lander that can easily move through the low gravity of the moon. The goal for the students from the NASA MINDS Project at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is to safely maneuver, land, and reposition future payloads that NASA sends to the moon. This will be done by using an “Autonomous Lunar Landing and Repositioning Control System” and integrating it with a cold gas thruster that was created by the previous NASA MINDS Project. Testing of the product will be focused on areas of propulsion, navigation, communication, and guidance. This project will similarly relate to the Mighty Eagle Project done by NASA in 2013. The students will also improve the thrust-vectoring control (TVC) system along with the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) method that was used in the previous project. The product will consist of a variety of hardware and software that will be under the service of the control system. These components will be essential for developing a script that will measure the dynamic effects of lunar gravity on our lander while being tested on Earth. They will also serve as the tools for navigation when maneuvering to a preferred location during decent and repositioning. Several of these components include but are not limited to; a Lidar sensor for measuring the distance from the ground, a thermal sensor for measuring the heat of the hardware, and a pressure transducer for measuring the pressure of the thruster. Some of the software that we will be using include Matlab for data analysis, visual studios for programming, Excel for storing data, and solid works for machining parts. An important task will be to simulate lunar gravity to account for the issues experienced on the moon when traveling in the horizontal direction. By combining programming with kinematics, we can estimate the distance covered by the lander on the moon. Due to MATLAB's ability to graph and simulate, this program will be essential in determining the efficiency of the project. During the testing phase, all precautions will be taken to ensure the safety of all the students. Every component will be tightly secured and checked. Testing will be conducted through a trial-and-error method on low grounds just a couple of inches or feet above the ground. As tests improve, we will add more obstacles and assignments to the control system. Since we will be working with thrusters capable of holding 4,000 PSI, we will attach a tether with dampeners to the lander to stop the possibility of the lander going out of control. During the design phase, our team will separate into three groups: structure, telemetry, and propulsion. The structures team will oversee creating a lightweight lander that will securely hold all the necessary components while keeping the center of mass as close to the center as possible.
Discussion: No discussion notes