Soren Sabet Sarvestany

This page is still under construction. In the meantime, a copy of the final design report can be found here , which contains all of my calculations and MATLAB code for the thermal model in the appendices.       

 

 

 

         For my Space Systems Design capstone, we were given an RFP for a Martian Planetary Penetrator by MDA , (the company that designed the CanadaArm for the International Space Station). The primary objective of the mission was to design a penetrator that could deliver a scientific payload to an ideal depth of 3m into the Martian soil.

 

         The purpose of this course was to teach students System Design Engineering by converging to a final design through a Concept of Operations report, a Systems report, a Mechanical Report, an Electrical report, and a Control Systems report as well as two presentations. I chose the operations lead, accepting responsibility for the concept of operations report, as well as anything to do with the thermal aspect of the design. I was in a team of 6 members, but most of our team members had never known or worked with each other before. I was the unofficial team lead because I have fairly good interpersonal skills and was able to bring the team together to get things done. 

 

The four available payloads (with additional details available in the RFP) were: 
       1. Micro-Raman sensor 
       2. Seismometer
       3. Regolith Conductivity Sensor 

       4. 180-degree surface imager

 

The following is a highlight of the main constraints: 
       1.    The penetrator must carry at least 1 of 4 scientific payloads specified 
       2.    The ideal penetration depth for scientific data is 3m

       3.    The ideal impact angle for proper penetration is within 10 degrees of the surface normal 

       4.    The minimum operating life for the penetrator is 1 Martian sol (approximately 24 earth hours)
       5.    Once the penetrator has collected scientific data, it is expected to broadcast that information for 24 
              hours 
       6.    The maximum available data to be uplinked to the orbiting spacecraft from the penetrator is a rate of 
              8 kbps during passes of 15-minute duration that occur three times per sol via an S-band system. 
       7.    The penetrator must fit inside a 100mm x 100mm x 300mm 3U CubeSat volume during transit

       8.    The penetrator shall have a maximum mass of 4kg
       9.    The penetrator package shall have a maximum mass of 4kg, per standard mass limit for a 3U CubeSat

       10.  The penetrator must be able to interface with the P-POD deployment system  
       11.  The penetrator must be powered off during transit 
       12.  The payloads shall accommodate the following worst-case enveloping temperature environments:
              operating (-65 + 50 degrees), survival (-128 to 50 degrees)

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At one point in our conceptual design, we were considering using nuclear power sources for both heating and electricity. Our TA's took off marks in our report, saying it was against Canadian Policy (even though I and two other team members as well as the two other teams taking the course had all looked and couldn't find anything). When we tried e-mailing them asking for clarification, we got the same answer: 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I e-mailed MDA asking for clarification, and they said they never had any constraints banning the use of nuclear power in space:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To clear up the confusion, I tried calling the Canadian Space Agency one evening, but a security guard answered the phone and was unable to help me. Since the call didn't work, I sent them an e-mail from their website, not expecting to get a response: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To my surprise, on the evening before our final design presentation, I found the following e-mail in my inbox: 

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