Space Apps Challenge 2018

In 1994, NASA announced the start of the Mars Exploration Program (MEP), The goal of this program is to explore the red planet and provide a continuous flow of scientific information and discoveries.

The aims (our challenge):

We aim to help in the Mars Exploration Program by our robot that could be used to:

• Determine the potential for Mars to have hosted life and if it contains evidence for past or extant life.
• Understand the process and history of climate on Mars.
• Determine and prepare for the future exploration of Mars by humans.

BACKGROUND

Nasa has announced about an exploration journey to Mars. This journey will give the priority to the variable conditions on this planet to decide if this planet is valid to live on and if there was a past life on it or not. Mars is the most accessible place in the solar system. Its atmosphere is composed primarily of carbon dioxide (about 96%), with minor amounts of other gases such as argon and nitrogen (less than 2%). The atmosphere is very thin, however, the atmospheric pressure at the surface of Mars is only about 0.6% of Earth’s (101,000 pascals).

To help exploring Mars, we can use some sensors like gas sensor (MQ2) which is used on the Earth to detect CO, H2, CH4 and C3H8. It is used to detect fire or leakages, Moisture sensor which is used to measure the moist of the soil, Humidity sensor which is used to measure the humidity of the air and so on….

SOLUTION/ PROJECT IDEA

To help achieve the requirements of Mars exploration journey, we decided to make a small robot that helps in exploring Mars which can be portable by hand or self-moving by smart moving system uses ultrasonic sensor to help the robot avoid obstacles. The robot has some sensors to achieve exploration process. These include:

1- Gas sensor: We use it to detect 4 gases: -

A- Carbon monoxide which is an evidence for iron ores under the ground.

B- Propane which is an evidence of the presence of (natural gas, methane, petroleum and hydrogen).

C- Methane which is an evidence for a fertile soil and the presence of natural gas and petroleum which determines whether there was an early life or not.

D- Hydrogen: When hydrogen is near the surface, this means the presence of methane or natural gas (as hydrogen is contained in these two substances) also, the presence of the hydrogen in soil is an evidence for the good fertile soil.

2- Moisture sensor: This is used to measure the moist of the soil that may mean that there are some microorganisms in the soil. Also, sensing the moist of soil would detect the presence of salts in it which could be an evidence for the presence of a variety of metallic ores underground.

3- Metal detector which consists of a metal coil near the ground that creates a magnetic field due to the flow of the electric current. The magnetic field is affected by metals below the surface and that affects the electric field flowing in the coil by decreasing the voltage that reaches the end of the coil.

4- Humidity & temperature sensor: This is used to measure the humidity of the air and the temperature. The average of humidity that is suitable for life is from 30% to 60%. Because the humidity differs from time to another, the humidity of an area will be measured more than one time and calculate the average of humidity of this area.

When one of these sensors detect one or more from its functions like (the detection of methane for the gas sensor or the detection of a metal for a metal detector), it will send a signal to the space craft or its accompanying astronauts but this signal differs from a sensor to another so that the astronauts could detect the places of the signals to collect samples from there later. We simulate the signals system in the prototype by a buzzer and a Led that work when one or more sensors detect one or more from its functions.

so, in summarization... our project detects (methane, propane, natural gas, petroleum, hydrogen pools underground that can be used a future fuel, fertility of soil, water in any form, huge iron ores underground, ferric metals ores, early life, salts in soil, suitable climate and any kind of metals that forms salts on the surface).

so our project made the best use of data ever... you can see the code written in the update tab ... the code occupies just 7 kilobytes without the comment used to illustrate some points .... all these processes are done with just 0.0068 MB ...

also the best use of hardware was provided ... imagine all these incredible features in 0.0051 cubic meter occupying robot ... using very simple Arduino uno board ....

RESOURCES

• NASA Announces Mars 2020 Rover Payload to Explore the Red Planet as Never Before – NASA's Mars Exploration Program. (2017, September 19). Retrieved from https://mars.nasa.gov/news/nasa-announces-mars-2020-rover-payload-to-explore-the-red-planet-as-never-before/
• Mars Facts | All About Mars – NASA's Mars Exploration Program. (2017, August 31). Retrieved from https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/facts/
• Overview - Mars 2020 Rover. (2017, July 20). Retrieved from https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/overview/
• https://earthdata.nasa.gov/user-resources/remote-sensors

• https://www.arduino.cc/