A bit of a vacation

Ok so I took a few weeks off to do some amazing trips with Cristin to Space Fest in Tucson and then to Alaska to visit a friend. Before we left I did manage to do a quick test of the motor drive system though.

This was actually a test of 2 different motors with 2 different gear ratios. I had ordered 6 of those tiny motors I posted about earlier and when I tested one of them, it seemed a bit weak so I grabbed a motor out of a little ZipZap truck, got a spur gear that meshed with it, and put it on the right front wheel. The rest of the little truck is actually seen in the video holding up the back end of the rover for the test. The left front wheel is driven by one of the little motors I ordered and it's corresponding spur gear. As the video shows, the little motors barely have enough power to get it rolling but when it does get going, it looked like it could go way faster than I want. I calculated it out, if I had all 6 motors on this thing and got it rolling, it would reach a speed of around 3 to 4 mph. So a fast walk. But no power for climbing hills or little rocks and I think for how light it is, 3 or 4 mph could be dangerous. Soooo...
 I ordered some new gears to put between the motor and the wheel for a little gear reduction. With some new calculations, the wheels went from 520 rpm's to a mere 50. That's a nice 31 feet per minute with hopefully a bunch more power. (I haven't gotten the gears hooked up yet)

 This is as far as I've gotten before the great vacation of 2013. As you can see, I also ordered bearings because I didn't like how wobbly the wheels were and also ordered some foam airplane wheels with tread on them. I currently have all the parts I think I need to get this thing rolling. I just have to draw up some mounting brackets for the gear-motor-wheel assembly and then make a trip to The Hack Factory to use the laser cutter to cut out my parts. Almost there. Just need to sit down and do it!

As for the great vacation of 2013, +Cristin Finnigan and I just got back a few days ago from the Alaska leg of our tour where we visited our Iditarod mushing friend, Jodi Bailey. Her and her husband Dan were such great hosts! Jodi took us out four wheeling on some state trails, set us up with a tour at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to see how they do their remote sensing of volcanoes and wild fires, showed us around AlaskaLand and the Yukon Quest office, and then had a great Solstice party where she invited wide range of folks for us to meet. These people ranged from a born and raised trapper, to goat farmers, to post doctorates at the university. The university folks told us how to get in with a research job while working on our masters and eventual doctorates. Very intriguing idea that we are now taking into some serious consideration. Anyways, here's some pics from Alaska:

Out four wheeling

A giant model of old towns in Alaska

An old gold dredge

 Apparently all the really good pictures were on her camera. But you get the idea. 

As for Space Fest, we traveled down to Tucson a few weeks ago to go meet some NASA astronauts and learn about how space travel is changing with all the new companies getting involved. We even met Geoff Notkin of The Science Channel's Meteorite Men who kind of took us under his wing for an evening of music and travel stories. While we were there, we got to meet Fred Hiase of Apollo 13, Dick Gordon and Alan Bean of Apollo 12, Ed Mitchell of Apollo 14, and Cristin found a friend in JoAnn Carr who was married to Sky Lab astronaut Gerald Carr. Here's some pics from that event. Again, all the good pics are on her camera.

Some of the Astronauts at their booths

More Astronauts and non Astronauts

A view from a walkway at the resort

Dick Gordon and Alan Bean having some fun with a really tall guy.

The Apollo panel hosted by Dr. Brian Cox

 So that's it. Now that I'm caught up on the blog and home for a while, not to mention full of inspiration from all the wonderful people we've met over the past couple weeks, I think I'll get this silly little rover of mine up and moving. Stay tuned for more progress...