Beyond Robotics: The first “Greek National” for the construction of a space Rover

With the planet moving at space speeds towards new projects in the “New Space” era, which opened up the world of Space technology to numerous citizen groups around the planet, the National Rover Team’s “Beyond Robotics” first presentation, held at the end of last October, it becomes particularly important for Greek efforts in the field.

“It is a big challenge, but we believe that the annual European student competition “European Rover Challenge” will respond to it. A challenge, which will bring for the first time a team, ours “Beyond Robotics”, to be the 1st National Rover Team to represent Greece”, he said, speaking to the APE-MPE radio station “Agency 104.9 FM “, the co-founder and communications manager of the group Evita Psoni.

“We are the first team to dare, but we believe it. The important thing from now on is to complete after the initial and detailed design of the Rover and the first steps of testing the vehicle”, added Ms. Psoni and explained that the competition will be strong since the Greek team will face teams that have been participating in the competition for a number of years and have developed expertise. “Regardless of the competition, however, we will do everything we can to develop a Rover, which will have some interesting technical and research tasks (s.s. tests) to demonstrate in the competition”, emphasized Mrs. Psoni.

The “European Rover Challenge” is an annual space and robotics competition in which student teams from around the world are challenged to create, design and build a Rover, which will compete against teams from the rest of the world after determining as “European”, it is a program for teams from all over the planet. Then, according to Ms. Psoni, “the rovers undergo tests that simulate the difficulties they might face on a future mission to Mars. This European “Rover Challenge” is a magnet for experts in planetary robotics, representatives of science, New Space companies and designers of autonomous research vehicles destined for Mars, and it is this prospect that has led us to dare. ».

“Beyond Robotics” is under the auspices of the Region of Attica and the National Technical University of Athens, it consists of 55 undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral students and consultants from all over Greece and is already starting the design and manufacturing processes of its space rover in order to achieve the best performance in the European competition “European Rover Challenge”, in September 2023, in Poland.

The tests and the space “counter” innovation

“This competition has some tests that the Rover will be put through that simulates the normal tests it would be put through if it were on the planet Mars. There are five tests (s.s tasks), among which the autonomous navigation in the terrain, where we will compete and the science task, in which we will have to develop a geological hypothesis and either reject it, or say that it is correct, but something particularly challenging. Of interest is the so-called maintenance task, where the robotic Rover will have to interact using an arm with buttons, which will be located on a panel. That is, to be able to “maintain” equipment on Mars, make some repairs, interact with such elements, when, for example, in future missions there will already be equipment on the Red Planet”, pointed out, for his part, Michalis Diakonikolis , co-founder and project manager of the National Rover Team “Beyond Robotics”, asked about the challenges the space rover will have to meet.

“It is a complex project, so the first step that needs to be done is a participation to simplify it, which we did as a team by dividing the system into its subsystems to see also limits that the competition gives, such as for example that the Rover it should not exceed 50 kg in weight. So we built the first draft and continue to the design and then the construction part. We want to be ready at the end of January for the construction and assembly of our Rover,” said Mr. Diakonikolis.

Cooperation of universities from all over Greece in the National Team

The aim of the construction of this space rover will not only be to be able to move in the alien environment in which it will be found, but also to complete an experiment that will take place. “For this purpose, the Rover will have to integrate various technologies and for this reason, our team includes students of many specialties from many universities, from many cities throughout Greece, such as the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Patras, the University of Thessaly, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, in addition to the National Technical University of Metsovia, of which we have the patronage”, explained Mrs. Psoni.

In this context and to serve the needs of the National Rover Team, the non-profit and purely voluntary organization “Beyond Orbit” was founded, as she explained, in order to gather the necessary financial resources and purchase the necessary equipment to pass the team in the construction phase of the Rover.

The team is currently looking for a major sponsor, who will cover the basic costs of the Rover’s construction. “Our first “meeting” with the public was at the event “THE FIRST NATIONAL TEAM IN THE EUROPEAN ROVER CHALLENGE 2023”, organized by “Beyond Orbit” and the Hellenic Space Center, under the auspices of the Ministry of Digital Governance, with the kind Corallia and si-Cluster support last October. From there on, we move creatively to have all the necessary ingredients for the success of our Greece in this particular competition”, concluded Ms. Psoni.

RES-EMP

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