Uranus Explorers | Make Sense Out of Mars
The Challenge | Make Sense Out of Mars
Develop a sensor to be used by humans on Mars.
A.L.P.S.: Autonomous Local Positioning System
A.L.P.S. helps isolated explorers keeping track of their path and returning safely home.
We imagined Mars a few decades from now, with a small community exploring the surroundings of the base.
How do you orient yourself on the planet, when you're far from the base or your vehicle?
Doing some research, we found this challenges:
- on Mars you can't use a compass;
- GPS satellites may not be available soon;
- communications can be cut by a dust storm.
We aimed for an independent wearable tracking system, able to track the astronaut path on a local scale.
Our solution is a simple device using accelerometers data to plot a 3D path in realtime, so the explorer is always able to get back safely. It can be easily embedded in the suit and upgraded with health and environmental sensors, so it can log data related to a precise location.
SpaceApps is a NASA incubator innovation program.