Sprinter
The space printing rover project is about experimental verification of the concept to use locally available geological material and solar energy to build solid structures by a sintering process. This concept’s main aim and potential benefits are used in uninhabited environments such as extraterrestrial space bodies or planets.
Podcast in the Slovak language
Mass is a crucial factor if one wants to discover or travel in outer space. If humankind wants to conquer other planets, the element of mass is even more critical. This is where 3D printing comes into mind. It is much easier to create a construction from sources which can be found on other planets and the technology of 3D printing can be used to build habitats on extraterrestrial bodies. This way one can save space and expenses during space travel. There are some types of additive technologies that can be used, but the most remunerative types are melting the material gathered from the environment. The most effective technologies are sintering or melting using laser beams, or we can use the radiation of the light beams using mirrors or lenses. The primary objective of this thesis is to show the design of a demonstration rover that can travel in hard terrain, gather material from the environment, and has the ability of 3D printing so that it can create constructional units for larger structures.
Bachelor thesis 2020, Andrej Šutý SK, Navigation of mobile robot in ROS
Project concept animation
Reportage in TV news
About us
We have begun the project as a student voluntary activity while studying at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. For the “space project” or as we called it later, the Space Printing Rover project, we have been inspirited and motivated by few professors from the Faculty of Electrical engineering and Information technology, namely RNDr. Pavol Valko, CSc, prof. Ing. Peter Hubinsky, PhD, prof. Ing. Vladimír Kutiš, PhD. and others.
Members of core development team were students, who were enthused by meaningful engineering work, collaborative learning and not in the last place, Space and Cosmic technologies. Members of core development team: Oliver Hollý, Ľubomír Maťuga, Matej Pavelka, Milan Gallo, Ladislav Kašša, Andrej Šutý.
Gallery
International engineering fair Brno 2018
Contact
s.printerstuba@gmail.com
Acknowledgment
We would like to express gratitude to everyone who helped us, namely to Ing. Lukáš Hrečko for expert advice and consultations in the development process, to Mgr. Alena Foltinova for administrative help and all others scientists from FEI STU. Special thanks go to the Tatrabanka Foundation for its financial support, thanks to which this work could be carried out.
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