Lunar TORCH

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

Lunar TORCH

Please have a look at the attached PDF-file and/or follow YouTube link for video: https://youtu.be/RPjsD9r9nak
Now that the competition is over, I added a few more links, hopefully making it easier to understand the principles.
https://youtu.be/DLO9hRlaj1s
https://youtu.be/iDRmBiZfOXo
https://youtu.be/CxjNwaEVFHE
https://he-ideas.weebly.com/ideas-and-stuff.html

I chose to focus on:
• Reliable construction
• Low center of gravity
• Stable through unfolding and use
• Low placement of most motors
• Simple construction
• Easy handling – unfolding-adjustment-folding
• Self-cleaning

One of the main concerns is avoiding the whole construction to overturn during use as the rover has a rather small contact area compared to the 10 square meter big mirror.
To obtain that, several things were done:
• A counter revolution of the mirror during unfolding
• Controlled unfolding of the scaffold/stand
• Individual controlled Support legs for levelling

The construction consist of seven mirrors carried by a central gear mechanism, an foldable stand/arm system and a base with four support legs. The base is mounted on a rover (not in the scope).
A short description of each system follows:
• 6 of the mirrors are basically alike, only the connection to the gear system differs slightly.
• The 7. mirror is a slightly bigger to obtain the 10 square meter area and is equipped with solar cell surface.
• The mirrors are sort of stacked and unfolded separately by a central gear mechanism.
• The gear has 6 ‘output’, so each mirror is driven/rotated individually. By gearing them together, their movements are controlled during the entire unfolding and folding sequences.
• The gear also have a mechanism that makes it possible to tilt each mirror and thereby change the focus.
• The foldable arm system is made so the arms are geared together and thereby can be driven from the base
• The base is mounted on a rover, and can be levelled by four independent legs.
• The stand/arms system is pivoted on the base and the can be rotated 360 degrees. By turning the arm system the mirrors will be turned as well.

Unfolding sequence:
1. The rover is moved to the wanted location.
2. The legs are turned out and each of them is lowered until the rover is in horizontal level in both directions (the rover might be lifted a bit off the ground).
3. The stand/arm system is stretched up to its vertical position.
4. The mirror gear system is activated, causing the mirrors to unfold while keeping its center of gravity close to the center of the base.
5. The whole mirror is turned to the wanted reflection angle both horizontal and vertical.
6. The mirrors focal point is adjusted to the wanted distance by tilting the mirrors common adjusting mechanism.
 
Comments:
The mirrors are made as an 10x10mm aluminum frame with a thin polished aluminum plate making a shiny surface.
The gears are all made of aluminum. Due to the teeth module, the gearing makes different gaps between the mirrors, but this will not have any effect on the mirror function. Loose tolerances secure that the gear will continue function even if it is covered with dust. If needed the gear could be in capsuled and heated.
Only three motors are needed to unfold, focus and balance the mirrors. The rest of the motors are located at the base level.
Because of the very stable and easy unfolding and folding sequence, it will be easy to move the rover to new exiting places. The mirror adjustment will also be easy to do remotely.
The estimated weight is:
• Mirrors and gear system is 38kg
• Base, legs and Arm/stand is 54kg (might be optimized)
• Total estimated weight less than 100kg (excluding the rover)