Okay, here is the newest entrant in our rover design competition that has caused a lot of discussions on our forum during the last few days: A moving sphere with two degrees of freedom. Enjoy!
Just put some spikes on it for traction! That would make a cool kids toy. If you adapted it to a barrel it would be easier to mount your cameras (in the barrel ends). For the sphere, I suppose you could make the curvature of the sphere part of your lens system for your camera, but moon dust might stick to it pretty bad. If the barrel had two halves capable of independent rotation, you could turn the barrel as a whole. With the barrel you can stop on a hill by turning sideways in the incline. With the sphere you would roll. In either case, I think it will be hard to make it up a steep hill, so you better plan for flat terrain.
But I don't know what you're going to do for solar panels. I suppose you could just let them collect dust but it would probably render them ineffective, unless you come up with some sort of vibration system to shake all of the dust loose. But when it comes to insulation, your rover has advantages over them all. It could be a candidate for the lunar night bonus prize.
You are getting a lot of cool people for your team. Since the last couple of months I have been getting more and more impressed with team Frednet.
A littel more sophisticate...
'If you adapted it to a barrel it would be easier to mount your cameras (in the barrel ends).'
This configuration already exists and is called GroundBot which is one degree of freedom.
Solar cells, spikes of course! but a littel more sophisticate...
See the Picorover portal in the wiki of Team FREDNET for detaills.
Joshua
Very Cool!
Just put some spikes on it for traction! That would make a cool kids toy. If you adapted it to a barrel it would be easier to mount your cameras (in the barrel ends). For the sphere, I suppose you could make the curvature of the sphere part of your lens system for your camera, but moon dust might stick to it pretty bad. If the barrel had two halves capable of independent rotation, you could turn the barrel as a whole. With the barrel you can stop on a hill by turning sideways in the incline. With the sphere you would roll. In either case, I think it will be hard to make it up a steep hill, so you better plan for flat terrain.
But I don't know what you're going to do for solar panels. I suppose you could just let them collect dust but it would probably render them ineffective, unless you come up with some sort of vibration system to shake all of the dust loose. But when it comes to insulation, your rover has advantages over them all. It could be a candidate for the lunar night bonus prize.
You are getting a lot of cool people for your team. Since the last couple of months I have been getting more and more impressed with team Frednet.