Our Team

The McMaster Mars Rover Team will bring together McMaster students with an interest in space and space technologies to gain real world experience while solving a technical problem. It will also allow students at McMaster and in the local community to participate in the design and construction of a functional Mars Rover, created to compete in international competitions. Furthermore, provide networking opportunities to members and non-member McMaster students for entry into the aerospace field.

The Rover

​​The Electrical Team is responsible for the power
supply and communication between on-board rover
hardware, incorporating standard protocols such as I2C
and SPI, as well as sending data packets between the
rover and base station. The Electrical Team will utilize
LoRa modules to send and receive vital data towards the
base station, as well as 2.4GHz WiFi to provide live
camera feed within a 1 km distance.

The Mechanical Team is responsible for the complete
design of the 50kg rover, including the integration of onboard
science experiments as well as electrical systems.
The Mechanical Team leverages CAD software to test
components, utilizing finite element analysis and dynamic
simulations to ensure robust designs before the manufacturing
stage.

​​The Software Team for the 2021-2022 term will be utilizing
Robot Operating System, an industry standard middleware
for robotics control. Armed with a powerful
NVIDIA Jetson TX2 Development Board, the software
team will implement advanced algorithms for object detection,
GPS estimation, ArUco marker detection as well
as LiDAR mapping.

​The Science Team is responsible for the development of
on-board research experiments regarding obtained soil
samples. The soil sample’s properties will be analyzed,
such as the presence of organic compounds, metal,
pH rating, to determine presence of life. The area will
also be analyzed to determine if it meets the metrics
for habitation and for scientific study. Once the data
is compiled, the Science Team will be responsible for
generating a report of its findings.

Watch the assembly of our Drivetrain!

In this video our Mechanical Lead Samee Syed is assembling our Drivetrain Module, this part of the rover is almost completely made out of 3D printed parts, from flexible TPU tires to the Carbon Fiber Nylon side plates, this assembly features a dual wheel design which was optimized for dirt 

These are just some of the parts Kodarin Industries and JLCPCB helped us  manufacture in the 2021/2021! 

Goals

Our goals to this summer are to assemble the suspension and chassis manufactured by Kodarin Industries, wire the drive motors, controllers and start path planning using our designed PCB Boards.

We have other parts of the rover to finish, such as the arm and the science module. With your help we hope to accomplish the other tasks by this summer!

Updates on our rover can be found on the Blog tab and more information about how our rover works can be found at the Learn tab.​

MISSION 1: FARADAY SPONSORS