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Our Team
The Sooner Rover Team was founded in the Fall semester of 2015 by a small group of students that were interested in space and robotics who saw a very successful competition year, bringing home the highest score the NASA RASC-AL Robo Ops Competition has ever seen! Since then, the team has grown to more than 60 students who are eager to manufacture a competition ready rover. We will be taking on the same competition as last year: The University Rover Challenge! Among the students on the team over 10 majors are represented including Aerospace, Computer, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Geology/Geophysics, Mathematics, and Astrophysics.
Our Need
We need your support! Let's start off by saying that $10,000 is a very beginning goal for us and we are aiming to raise at least 15,000!! Our first year, the team raised over $17,000 with the help of supporters like you. This year, the University Rover Challenge aims to once again test the bounds of our team. This is an exciting task for the Sooner Rover Team and we can’t wait to overcome the new challenges set before us. We ask for your support to help us achieve success, once again, for our team and for our University. We promise, as a team, that your contributions will be used to bring us closer to our final product and are extremely grateful for each and every act of support! BOOMER SOONER!
Our Rover
The Sooner Rover is based off of a Russian design concept (the Marsokhad) and this will be the third year we compete with this design. We believe it was our take on this design, along with a unique control system, that has set us apart. We plan to keep the best of what we had last year and improve in every area that we can. This year's rover will also need on board equipment to run scientific analysis that will determine characteristics such as soil humidity and subsurface temperature. These improvements, however, will require better parts and cost more money.
Our Competition
The Sooner Rover Team will be competing in the 2019 University Rover Challenge from May 30th - June 1st. The competition will be held at the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) near Hanksville, Utah. Teams will face a variety of obstacles and are required to be completely untethered (wireless) and controlled from a remote location along with navigating terrain challenges, autonomous traversal, science caching, retrieval and delivery tasks, and more. When we are done with this challenge we will move onto other rover challenges around the world. Only with your support can we bring home a victory!
Everything helps! Five dollars may not seem like it will go a long way but it can provide necessary parts such as nylon XT60 connectors, misc. hardware (nuts, bolts), zip ties, etc.
Help provide some communication to our Rover! Everything requires intelligence and building custom intelligence requires lots of electronic parts communicating all at once. Parts: Electronics Box, Micro SD Cards, Lasers, etc.
Let's get this Rover Rolling! Gears and Communication are vital for our competition. Direction and control will be a major part of us being able to tackle this year’s challenges. Parts: 32 Tooth Gears, 50 Tooth Gears, Antenna Cables, etc.
The arm for our rover is very unique and requires many intricate parts for it to function efficiently. This donation can help contribute parts such as 360 Servos, microcomputers, etc.
Give our rover some life! Our performance will need to be at its best when the competition rolls around. Supplying and regulating power is one more thing that needs to be perfect. Parts: Power Supply, Battery Charger, Speed Controllers, LiFe Batteries, etc.
Support at this level will provide funds so our students can assemble our custom wheels, complete electronic systems, and many other important needs. Your generous donation will help our rover succeed in many of the difficult tasks ahead of us. Parts: Arm/Claw Servos, Cameras, Router, etc.
