Our Crowdfunding Groups
Be sure and read the Updates tab!
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. After a very successful competition year, bringing home the highest score the NASA RASC-AL Robo Ops Competition has ever seen, the team has grown in size to about 20 students. We will be taking on a new competition this year: The University Rover Challenge! Among the students on the team we represent a variety of majors 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 $4,000 is a very beginning goal for us and we are aiming to raise 400% of this ($16,000)!! Last year the team was awarded a $10,000 grant up front, from the RASC-AL Robo Ops Competition to help fund our participation. This year however, the team will not receive an initial grant. Additionally, The University Rover Challenge brings greater obstacles and more requirements. This is an exciting task for the Sooner Rover Team and we can’t wait to overcome the new challenges set before us, but it will take a much greater monetary contribution than we had last year. 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
Our rover last year, Rovie McRover Face, was based off of a Russian design concept (the Marsokhad) that was introduced to the team. We believe it was our take on this design along with a unique control system that set us apart last year. We were able to out maneuver and manipulate in ways that the other rovers simply couldn't! 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 2017 University Rover Challenge from June 1st to the 3rd. The competition will be held at the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) near Hanksville, Utah. Teams competing in the competition will face a variety of obstacles and are required to be completely untethered (wireless) and controlled from a remote location. The teams will also face many obstacles including terrain challenges, autonomous traversal, science caching, retrieval and delivery tasks, and more. Only with your support can we bring home a victory like last year!
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 our own 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 intericate 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 to assemble our custom wheels, get the electronics completed, build our rover's arm or 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.
