![]() Webcams are cheap (and I have two laying around), old-ass motherboards are cheap, etc. This should show the complete working software chain. Stage 2: Build a proof of concept rover that includes versions of every component. Spec the other components in their finished form, and define a development path that allows us to test, as much as possible without leaving this planet, those components. Start writing all the control software for the robot. Build a library to hook up those apis to the simulator. Stage 1: Build the simulator, and the apis that will be used to access the hardware. So does this sound interesting? I thought I'd approach the subject and we can toss it around and see if we can determine exactly how feasible the idea is, or if it's just another one of Luci's crazy ideas. Maybe we'll even get a chunk of the prize money, although to be honest I'd be happy just to see my own code running on the moon. So if we keep ourselves privately funded, and we develop the rover in a regular open source fashion, we can pitch the rover to groups working on a launch platform and it'll be an obvious fit. ![]() But there are plenty of people working on launch platforms that are not working on rovers and will need a rover. ![]() Now, why should we do this? I'm thinking that we could literally spend the next 4-5 years working on it, and we won't have a launch platform because that takes big bucks we definitely don't have, and skills that don't exist in the community here yet. We can move on to more complex stuff from there depending on availability of funds. We can test the code we write in a simulator (we may have to write that, may not), and we can start with basic field testing using my roomba vacuum. Then we need to build a proof of concept robot, and solicit funding of course. We can do all of that stuff on the cheap! We can use all sorts of open source software components to fill in the blanks needed, we just have to tie it all together into a robotic brain. The largest part of this project, imo, is going to be the programming and the electronics. We fund it out of our own pockets (I haven't got much to offer, but I'm confident my wife will get behind this). We build a rover, a carrier for the rover, a piece of gear to leave in lunar orbit, and the ground station stuff. ![]() Here's what I've got in mind, but I have to warn you all that I haven't advanced the idea far enough to consider planning, still in "under consideration" stage. I'm considering the possibility that the community here (and others who want to be involved) can put together a component needed for the prize: the rover. Basically, they're still working on the rules, but that's no reason we can't get to work. ![]()
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