Mini-Dandelion Rover, Motor Engineering Model (EM) from Empire Magnetics

Today is a GREAT DAY, we receive 4 units of the "Motor Engineering Model" (EM) manufactured by Empire Magnetics Inc for our Mini-Dandelion rover. 

Empire Magnetics is one of the world leader companies on the electric motor manufacturing for hard environments like cryogenics, vacuum and space, we are very proud that we are working with them for the motor and traction systems for our Mini-Dandelion rover!.

An "Engineering Model" (EM) means, that is a motor that it have all the mechanical and electrical specifications that the final one is going to have. This motors are not prepared to resist all the hard environment challenges of space (in this particular case the extreme temperature range, this unit can resist vacuum and vibration), but is of a big help in terms of development to work on software and related electronics.

This is the first iteration of the EM that we are working with Empire Magnetic until we get the final units to put on the rover version that is going to go into the space, it is an important step for our project!

I can't say much about specific characteristics and they need a special handling, nevertheless, next a couple of pictures and video to give you an idea of the motor, enjoy!

Dandelion Rover show it at "Stargazing Live" BBC TV Show

Hi, just a quick note about an appearance of our Dandelion Rover at the "Stargazing Live" BBC TV Show last month on Jan 8.

We was waiting to receive a copy of the TV Show to be able to actually show a little clip or still pictures of the appearance of Dandelion on the show, but after a long wait, we was informed by BBC that strict property right policies prohibit any reproduction of any BBC content, even still pictures!

Well, this is have a good and bad side, the good one is that we appeared on BBC!, here is the link of the TV Show:

Stargazin Live at BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01py61m

Which is actually a link to the Episode 2 of the Third Season of the show in which Dandelion show up. The TV show present a wide range of space and astronomic news and related technologies, on that particular episode, one of the topics was the "Smart Metal Alloys" (SMA) as Nitinol, which is commonly use it in space application for antenna or solar panels deployments. The producers of the show hear about our Dandelion rover design and the plans to use of SMA materials on the wheels and they give us a call.

Natalie Hewit from BBC did the interview by phone from UK, we send some pictures and additional descriptions and Voila!, Dandelion on BBC!

I get a small clip of the show for private use, I would love to posted on youtube!, but I can't, they don't allow me :-(

I was mention that it have a bad side, and that is that we can't reproduce here any part of the show nor pictures of it, so you have to make an "act of faith" and/or visit the link to try to see it online (is also not available for all countries errrggghh).

I still asking to BBC for some permissions to be able to "show something", I will posted here in case of any success....

P.S: For the GLXP guys (Camacho and company :-) , send me private mail if you want some evidence and can send privately send you a short clip of the show ;-).

Team Angelicvm Visit Nimesis

Last week, on Feb 4, as part of our trip to Europe to visit our important components providers for our rover development, we meet with Nimesis (http://www.nimesis.com/), one of the world leader in "Smart Metal Alloys" (SMA).

Much of our work with them is "Top Secret" and key technology of our rover (sorry but there are teams outside that are already *borrowing* our ideas), so I can't say much here, but what I can say is that the guys at Nimesis are very exited, as us, to work together and they are "on board" to take the challenges of build the SMA pieces that our rover need.

We meet with Diane, one of the project manager at Nimesis, on Friday 8 of Feb, at the Nimesis headquarters and machinery lab in Metz, France.

Here we are working with she...a number of stuff need to be addressed.

In the next pictures, we can see part of the High-Tech machinery lab at Nimesis, not everything is permitted to shoot on pictures.

Finally, we can see here on the next pictures and videos, a couple of samples of Nimesis technologies. Currently Nimesis work with SMA components for Nuclear industry to High precision surgeries tools.

More info about our upcoming work with Nimesis on the next month!!

Team Angelicvm visit ClydeSpace

Last week, on Feb. 4, we start our trip to Europe, to assist to important meetings with ClydeSpace Ltda. in Glasgow, Scotland, and with Nimesis in Metz, France.

In this blog I going to show some pictures about our trip in general and also about our visit to ClydeSpace.

We start our trip in Puerto Montt, Chile, with Francisco Calfun, our local Nitinol expert at UACh, Martin Sandoval, a friend of the team as mechanical engineering consultant and myself (Mauricio Henriquez) as Chief Rover Development of the Angelicvm Team.

The flight start about 11Am on Monday 4 of Feb. , we arrive to Santiago about 13:30 and then we wait for about 4hrs to take the connection flight to Paris at 17:30.

After a very shaken flight of almost 14hrs!!, we arrive to the Charles de Gaulle international airport...but the suffering don't end there, we decide to go directly to Glasgow to meet ClydeSpace and after that came back to France for our meeting with Nimesis. 

So, once in Paris, we wait for about 7hrs for our connection flight to Scotland!....It was not easy, but at least is a very beautiful airport and it was for a good reason, we survive :-)

...oh BTW, from Paris it was NOT a direct flight to Glasgow, no, that would have bee to simple, the shaky small propeller airplane stop first in Cardiff!, and it get worse, since Cardiff was our entry point to UK, we was forced to get off the plain to go throw immigration and then back to the plain for the rest of the flight to Glasgow....in summary, from Pto. Montt to Glasgow it was an aprox. of 20hrs trip!!...(including the connection times)

After a deserved rest at the Mercury hotel in Glasgow, we prepare for our meeting with ClydeSpace of the next day...

The people in ClydeSpace was expecting us for our meeting on Wed 6, the main idea of the meetings was to solve doubts about our incoming work on electronics for our Mini-Dandelion rover. 

Next a couple of pictures that the guys at ClydeSpace was kind enough to let us take...

Robin, a project manager, receive us at the office...

Next, some technology samples of ClydeSpace related to micro satellites...

ClydeSpace currently have about 40% of the Micro-Satellite market around the world and they are leader in small electronics for space environments, so due to our very restricted available space for electronics in our rover, they are the ideal choice for our electronic partner.

Currently they are working in a number of project for many agencies, countries and private companies, here a sample of a 3U CubeSat form factor satellite.

 Robin showing us some of the labs...

The image show part of the clean-room area of the lab...

 Part of the team at ClydeSpace working...

Here another technology sample of ClydeSpace, this is an inertial wheel that helps positioning and orientation of satellites on space.

Chisato, one of the ClydeSpace engineers and our contact with them and one of her colleagues working...

From left to right on the picture above, Chisato, Francisco, Robin, Martin and me...

This is an interesting idea that we plan to borrow, they have a nice pool table at the office!! ...very nice :-)

After a long day of meetings and work, we are very happy with the results, we can't say much here publicly (confidential info about our incoming work), but I can say that they are, as us, very exited to work together. The technological capacities of ClydeSpace made them a perfect choice to work in our electronics needs for Mini-Dandelion.

The guys at ClydeSpace, Robin and Chisato with us in their meeting room, later that night they invite us to a very nice dinner in a very beautiful restaurant in Glasgow to test the Scotland cuisine...but I reserve those pictures for myself ;-) .. excellent food!, very good company..

One sad thing is that we was almost unable to tour around such a beautiful city, but we are sure that is not going to be our last trip to Glasgow ;-) ...nevertheless here are a couple of pictures of the blocks around the Mercury Hotel.

More news about our work in electronics soon!

Cheers!