Space Systems Laboratory

For those of you who didn't make it to Maryland Day last weekend, here's the new addition to the Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility...

It's that time again! For anyone local, the ENAE 484 design class is holding their Critical Design Review on Tuesday, April 26, from 6:30-10:30pm in CSIC 3117. Please contact me if you think you might be able to attend. The "formal" description of this year's project is:

This year, the 42 students in the class have been performing the mission architecture, systems analysis, and preliminary vehicle/systems designs for an evolutionary space exploration program leading to a human base on Mars' moon Phobos by 2031. Based on the requirements of the NASA RASC-AL design competition, this program builds on the current NASA exploration architecture, married with development in commercial space systems, and has a hard constraint to stay within NASA's current funding for exploration throughout the period of the program. To build the experience base necessary for a successful series of human missions into Mars orbit, the program envisioned includes testing of critical habitat elements on International Space Station and cislunar space, followed by a human mission to a near-Earth asteroid of the same type as Phobos, along with robotic precursor missions to explore Phobos and Deimos, search for sources of in-situ propellant production, and start to emplace the outpost elements in preparation for the arrival of the crewed mission in the 2031 launch window. The project also examines the operations of the outpost during the initial 450-day stay, including a strong focus on low-latency teleoperation of robotic exploration systems on the surface of Mars in preparation for human landings in a subsequent phase.

Congratulations to the UMD team on securing First Place in the 2015 Robo Ops Competition!!

Congrats to the UMD team for their stellar performance on the Rock Yard! Best of luck in the final scoring!

Don't miss the UMD team's competition run on the JSC Rock Yard today at 9:45 EST, 8:45 CST! Follow the live stream here!
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/umd-roboops-livestream

UMD RoboOps Livestream We are the University of Maryland entry in the RASC-AL RoboOps competition. Watch F***g, our rover, compete live at Johnson Space Center as we control it from the UMD College Park campus.

Best of luck to the UMD team in the 2015 RASC-AL RoboOps competition! The away team just hit the road, and is now on their way to Johnson Space Center for the competition. They will be driving the robot on the JSC rock yard from our control room on the UMD campus, and trying to collect as many interesting samples as possible during their run. Check out their team page!

Maryland RoboOps UMD's page for the annual RASC-AL RoboOps competition funded by NASA! The end goal is to design and create a planetary rover that picks up "space rocks".

Hey, SSL fans! Don't forget that this year's ENAE 484 class is holding their Critical Design Review this Wednesday, 4/29, from 6-10pm in CSIC2117. This NASA-requested project is the design of a complete human Mars exploration program, culminating in a permanent 24-person settlement on Mars by 2054, using the current NASA exploration budget as the annual funding caps - it's probably the most ambitious project we've ever undertaken! Please let me know if you can come by for all or part of it - the students really benefit from outside reviewers!

Happy Yuri's Night from Hawaii!

The Space Systems Lab recently commissioned the new MX-C suit simulators for EVA in analogue space environments, and now they're supporting the latest HI-SEAS Mars simulation mission. Check them out, they're the two white ones!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi94ib80d6k&feature=youtu.be

Yuri's Night 2014 - HI-SEAS The HI-SEAS crew celebrates Yuri's Night 2014 from their simulated Martian habitat! The HI-SEAS mission (hi-seas.org) is studying crew cohesion and performan...

Throwback Thursday: Taking video of a test in the Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility circa 1997 - no comparison (in terms of size, simplicity, or video quality) to the GoPros we use today!

Volunteers from the Space Systems Lab are really enjoying the FIRST FRC robotics competition

Enjoying presenting at the Space Expo