Welcome to STEP 2021! We are excited that you are joining us for this online edition of our program. We ask for your patience and flexibility as we navigate this new way of handling the program. Rest assured that we are doing everything we can to make this experience the best it can be for all of you.
This website will be the home for all the supporting content for the program. Please check it daily!
Once you receive your kit, feel free to unbox it, but please don’t start building yet. We’ll work through the build process together in our meetings.
In the meantime, we have some content to get you started.
Project Scenario: Each of you will be designing and building a remote-control Mars Rover. Imagine that you are one of the astronauts selected to spend a couple of years on a Mars Base. You’ve been sent with the parts to assemble yourself a Rover to help you with science missions, basic tasks, and explorations around the planet. However, because you couldn’t know exactly what you needed until you got there, the engineers sent you with a basic rover kit and parts. Now that you are on Mars, you need to assemble the kit and modify it to do the missions you need to do during your stay. We’ll work with you to design and build a modification that interests you.
Inspirational Videos
First, this is the video that inspired the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zx7tGtwF5g As we said in our e-mails, we had to make a number of modifications due to limited availability of supplies and to make the robot work for our kit, but this should give you a good idea of where we are going.
Here are some videos from NASA to help give you ideas for your rover: Rover Time Lapse, Opportunity Rover, & Mars 2020
Check out this webpage for info on NASA’s upcoming Mars Mission: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/overview/
- Agenda of the Day:– https://wp.me/PaW51I-TI
- Resources:- https://wp.me/PaW51I-Tj
- Meet the Mentors:- https://wp.me/PaW51I-Tb
- Gallery:- https://wp.me/PaW51I-Te
List of Vendors: Get your modification parts from here!
- Pickup: Walmart, Home Depot
- Delivery: McMaster Carr, Amazon
This program is a stepping stone for you as you build your path as a successful aerospace engineer. Georgia Tech has a robust aerospace engineering program and don’t forget to apply when the right time comes! Here’s a link to the admissions – https://admission.gatech.edu/
On the last day of camp, you will be asked to give a 2-3 minute presentation (with 2 minutes of questions) to some of the sponsors of camp over Blue Jeans. We will also record your presentation for you, and you can use it back at school to show your teachers or as part of a portfolio for future applications.
You may do a live power point or Google slides presentation, or you may make a video to share. Your presentation should reflect your style, but it needs to be professional and appropriate.
Your 2-3 minute presentation should cover the following topics:
- Who are you?
- Name
- High School
- Future goals for yourself
- What did you do in camp?
- Building the baseline robot
- What was easy/hard/fun/challenging?
- What are some ideas you have to improve the kit if we were to repeat this project during non-COVID times?
- Your modifications
- What was your idea?
- How does it tie into the Mars Mission scenario?
- What did you accomplish (it is okay if you didn’t finish, just talk about what you did)?
- Did you try anything that failed? What did you do/would you do to try again?
- Building the baseline robot
- A few remarks about your experience
- What did you learn (something technical and something non-technical)?
- Any thoughts on how you might continue to work with your rover?
- Thank your sponsors! (S2A2 NASA ULI, Lockheed Martin, Georgia Space Grant, and Aerospace Systems Design Lab)
- Georgia Tech Logos to use for Presentation