Habitation and Advanced Deployment for Exploration of Subterranean Systems (HADES) Mission

This project was hosted through the NASA L'SPACE Mission Concept Academy (MCA) Program. In it, 15 of us worked over the course of months to develop a three-rover system capable of exploring lunar lava pits. In doing so, we learned all about how NASA approaches developing systems for its missions. This included, but was not limited to learning mechanical design principles to risk analysis to triple constraint navigation (programmatics) and more. When it was all said and done, our team was amongst the highest performing in the entire program!

Project Overview

As the main mechanical engineer for Team 16, I spearheaded a variety of efforts for our three-rover system. Not only did I work on a majority of the mechanical design for the rovers (having worked on two out of three entirely), but I also conducted [did not finish yet!]

Vehicle Design Summary:

• Anubis Rover (Carrier): Designed by a fellow teammate, this is a 40kg, 2m x 1.25m x 1.25m titanium chassis to house smaller rovers, with six-wheel rocker-bogie suspension for 30° slopes and magnetometer mounts for stable data collection.



• Prometheus Rover (Scout): Designed by myself, this is a 25kg, 0.45m x 0.58m x 0.43m agile rover with dust-protected enclosures for RADOM dosimeter and six-wheel mobility for pit scouting.



• Tsukuyomi Rover (Climber): Designed by myself, this is a 15kg, 0.25m x 0.38m x 0.19m design with LEMUR-inspired grippers for vertical climbing, housing LOLA LiDAR in a carbon-titanium frame.




• The following is a Raytracing-rendered lunar environment I set up in Blender such that we could really emphasize the rovers capability amongst the stars. This was unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, frankly, but a fun sidequest nonetheless!

Mechanical Subsystem Design

Here is where my design prowess really kicked into gear. Having developed two out of three rovers from scratch, I was responsible for all components that you see in their depiction. This includes the chassis, suspension, mobility components, and more. As part of my design process, using titanium alloys for durability and regolith resistance. Key features include rocker-bogie suspension components for terrain navigation and adaptive grippers for climbing (on Tsukuyomi specifically). ensured compliance with our mission requirements like a minimum load case load-bearing and thermal protection via FEA and material optimization.

Recovery, Redundancy, and Contingency Plans

In planning the development of my rovers, part of the process also involved incorporating incorporated redundancies where possible, given the mission constraints of not being able to recover the rovers once they arrived in the lunar environment. As such, I duplicated suspension components, sensor networks, and devised electromechanically-actuated recovery systems that could serve as real-time fault detection. In addition, I made sure that given the expected load cases in the lunar environment that our parts were structurally sound as well. The abrasiveness of the lunar dust, in addition to common loads like vibrations and dynamic distributed loads (e.g. unexpected shock due to traversing the harsh lunar terrain) were all concerns to bear in mind as I designed the rovers.

Manufacturing and Procurement

In collaboration with a peer, we selected key real-world suppliers that could supply raw materials and electromechanical components for the mission at large. Some of these suppliers included Alcoa for all alloys, as well as Maxon Motors for actuators. From there, we collaborated with the programmatics team to devise a reasonable timeline for procurement, fabrication, among other things, landing at a modset 14-25 weeks all in.

Verification

I validated designs through CMM inspections, FEA for structural loads, and thermal cycling tests, achieving TRL 7 for mechanical subsystems.

Summary

• Delivered mission-ready designs for a 2030 lunar launch under $300M budget.
• Achieved TRL 7, enabling lunar pit exploration.
• Mastered CAD, FEA, and systems integration.
• Led a top-performing team, enhancing my aerospace expertise.

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