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Mars Team
= SSI Overload =
== SSI Overload ==
So you've joined [https://ssi-teams.slack.com/join] Slack, maybe gone to a meeting or two, but you're not sure what you can do or what there even is to do with so many teams swirling around? Well you've come to right place! Below are all the projects each team is working on, what skills they utilize or where they're especially looking for help, and who you can contact to jump in! Think of this like a jobs listing page except that the jobs are always available and you apply by poking the person of contact and saying you want the job -- and it's probably yours.
So you've joined [https://ssi-teams.slack.com/join] Slack, maybe gone to a meeting or two, but you're not sure what you can do or what there even is to do with so many teams swirling around? Well you've come to right place! Below are all the projects each team is working on, what skills they utilize or where they're especially looking for help, and who you can contact to jump in! Think of this like a jobs listing page except that the jobs are always available and you apply by poking the person of contact and saying you want the job -- and it's probably yours.
As you can see from the length of this list, there will always be more SSI to do than you will have hours in a day, week, month, or year -- don't feel pressured to overextend yourself! If you have questions, are feeling overwhelmed, or just want to chat with someone, don't hesitate to reach out to a leadership member. ''SSI exists for, and because of, its members (that's you.) Your sanity, health, and overall well-being always come first.''
As you can see from the length of this list, there will always be more SSI to do than you will have hours in a day, week, month, or year -- don't feel pressured to overextend yourself! If you have questions, are feeling overwhelmed, or just want to chat with someone, don't hesitate to reach out to a leadership member. ''SSI exists for, and because of, its members (that's you.) Your sanity, health, and overall well-being always come first.''
= Mars =
Team Leads: {{Slack-user|@shreya garg=Shreya Garg|@Kylie=Kylie Holland}}
In the Mars team, SSI’s newest venture, we believe that humanity is destined to move beyond Earth and settle the Solar System. Our multidisciplinary work combines the fields of materials science, chemical engineering, civil engineering, economics, and anything else that helps our goals! Whether you’re majoring in one of those fields or are undeclared, all you need to be a productive member of our team is a passion for interplanetary exploration. This team is meant to be a great learning opportunity for all its members to become familiar with in situ resource utilization (ISRU) and other technologies that will build our future in space. ISRU promises to produce the resources necessary to sustain human life on other planets. The ability to make potable water, breathable air, and construction materials in situ means that the major constraint on interplanetary missions, the need to bring massive amounts of cargo, can be sidestepped. This would reduce the cost of a Mars mission by orders of magnitude and help expedite it. ISRU also provides the only way for Martian settlements to be truly self-sustaining, allowing humanity to become a multiplanetary species and kickstart a new era of history.
=== Mars Tractor ===
The tractor subteam is designing and constructing an autonomous roving vehicle dubbed the Mars Tractor that can gather extraterrestrial soil, deposit said soil into the bricks subteam’s brick machine, and manipulate produced bricks to construct simple structures like walls and roads. The machine features a modified rocker-bogie suspension configuration (similar to NASA’s Mars rovers), allowing it to tumble over uneven terrain. Its tools feature a custom soil-gathering drum and forklift-like attachment for carrying bricks. Basic computer vision will allow it to interface with the brick machine using visual tags while avoiding large obstacles.
The team has built a first draft of the mechanical and electrical systems, and has also begun work on the control code and computer vision software. Over the summer and into next year, the team will finish the basic tractor and design specialized arms for lifting, scooping, and placing soil and bricks. This project is particularly well suited to people interested in CS, MechE, EE, product design, and robotics!
=== Mars Simulation ===
The Mars Simulation team works to build a flexible Martian environment and mission architecture simulation platform. This past year, we’ve been building a minimum-viable-product capable of simulating SpaceX’s proposed mission architecture. Going forward, we hope to work with contacts at NASA to refine the system into a realistic, open-source mission planner! This project involves research, coding, visualization design, UX testing and design, and more! Ideal for students interested in CS, mission planning/space exploration strategy, communications, and UX/UI!
=== Mars Bricks ===
The bricks subteam experiments with methods of turning Martian and lunar soil into building materials for habitats and other structures. The main material we worked with is called biopolymer-bound soil composite (BSC), which is solely composed of an aggregate soil, a protein binder (such as bovine serum albumin), and reclaimable water (which is necessary for mixing and can be recaptured during desiccation). BSC has similar compressive strength as Portland cement concrete, the world’s most common construction material. While concrete production accounts for about 8% of global CO2 emissions, BSC provides a possible carbon-neutral alternative. We are currently designing a prototype device to autonomously produce BSC bricks.
This subteam won an opportunity to send an experiment to the ISS via SPOCS (Student Payload Opportunity with Citizen Science), a NASA design competition. We will send a payload that will test how BSC dries in microgravity aboard the International Space Station, which will provide valuable data to compare with ground experiments, hopefully shedding light on the material’s usage on the Moon and Mars.<span data-stringify-type="paragraph-break" class="c-mrkdwn__br"></span>Over the next year, we will process data and publish results from our ISS experiment. Additionally, we will finish designing our brick-making machine and start testing and iterating! This project would be particularly well suited for people interested in urban studies/housing, chemical engineering, materials science, MechE, EE, CS, and product design, as well as anyone who loved playing in mud puddles as a kid!
= Balloons =
= Balloons =