How to build a scaled-down version of Curiosity, all by yourself!
JPL has released open-source plans for building a scaled down version of the rover Curiosity at a total cost of only $2,500.
This project is a successor to an earlier educational rover model called “ROV-E,” which received positive responses in schools and museums, NASA said. The Open Source Rover offers a more affordable, less complicated model, and according to agency officials, people can assemble the new model with off-the-shelf parts for about $2,500.
“While the OSR [Open Source Rover] instructions are quite detailed, they still allow the builder the option of making their own design choices,” JPL officials said. “For example, builders can decide what controllers to use, weigh the trade-offs of adding USB cameras or solar panels and even attach science payloads. The baseline design of OSR … will allow users to choose how they want to customize and add to their rover, touching on multiple hardware and software principles along the way.”
I wonder how heavy a home-built rover would be, and whether it could be launched on a Falcon Heavy to Mars.
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JPL has released open-source plans for building a scaled down version of the rover Curiosity at a total cost of only $2,500.
This project is a successor to an earlier educational rover model called “ROV-E,” which received positive responses in schools and museums, NASA said. The Open Source Rover offers a more affordable, less complicated model, and according to agency officials, people can assemble the new model with off-the-shelf parts for about $2,500.
“While the OSR [Open Source Rover] instructions are quite detailed, they still allow the builder the option of making their own design choices,” JPL officials said. “For example, builders can decide what controllers to use, weigh the trade-offs of adding USB cameras or solar panels and even attach science payloads. The baseline design of OSR … will allow users to choose how they want to customize and add to their rover, touching on multiple hardware and software principles along the way.”
I wonder how heavy a home-built rover would be, and whether it could be launched on a Falcon Heavy to Mars.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“I wonder how heavy a home-built rover would be, and whether it could be launched on a Falcon Heavy to Mars.”
That’s just what I was think as I read the article, “Why limit it to Earth?”
And not just Mars, why not Luna?
I wonder if it would have that laser zapping spectrometer. Off the shelf. I hope it works on my Wifi so I don’t need a 30 meter diameter radio dish to communicate with it.
Just the little problem of adequate power to propel a large rover on Mars. Presuming you cannot acquired a RTG unit with Pu238.
Also until the folks from Hawthorne starts their Martian excursions. There is the maximum limit of about 900 kg for a lander and rover combo landing on Mars. Due to current NASA’s current Mars Entry, Descend & Landing method of aerobraking, supersonic parachute & whatever terminal deceleration option.
So even the Falcon 9 or most Atlas V variants is over-qualified for sending a rover to the surface of Mars with the current NASA EDL method which requires a payload capacity of about 2.5 tonnes.
I was looking at another car, but . . .