What is Space Concordia?

We are a student society of Concordia University passionate about astronautical engineering. Our mission is to promote space sciences and engineering through outreach events at industry and educational organizations. Space Concordia was formed three years ago to compete in a satellite building competition, the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC). We won with our satellite entry, ConSat-1, and in the wake of our victory it will be the first satellite from a Quebec university to be launched into space. Now, some of our key ConSat-1 members have expanded the society with a Robotics Division.

Space's New Division: Robotics

The Robotics division's goal is to build a Mars rover for the University Rover Challenge (URC) hosted by the Mars Society. This international competition involves building a rover to perform a sequence of challenges on an obstacle field in the Utah desert. 

SCAAR (Space Concordia Astronaut Assistance Rover)

The rover is designed to perform four tasks. The first of the tasks, terrain traversal, involves the rover navigating an obstacle course along a path in the Utah desert. Next, for the astronaut assistance task, the rover will have to collect items from the ground using a robotic arm, and carry them to deposit in front of mock astronauts at different locations in the desert course. The soil sample retrieval task requires the rover to survey the desert landscape for areas that have the best chance of containing or having contained life. A sample is collected, and an onboard test for life is performed. Finally, the equipment servicing task has the rover’s robotic arm carrying out a series of dexterous tasks, such as attaching bolts and connecting pipes.

Plan for Project to Achieve its Objectives

The project is in its final stages, as the URC is in May. The majority of manufacturing has been completed. This leaves assembly and testing for the next two months, March and April, with time for optimization of design elements in May. 

Team Structure

Robotics division consists of an interdisciplinary team of 23 undergraduate engineering students and external collaborators.  

Where is the Money Going?

Here is a general budget of our rover:

TOTAL BUDGET: $15,000 US

Part of the challenge of constructing such a robot is designing it to solve conflicting
requirements while staying within a budget of $15,000 US as required by the URC competition. The future of Martian and Lunar exploration will necessitate economical solutions to sending unmanned vehicles in order to access harsh environments and perform complex studies of the terrain.

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Have any questions? Send us an email to indiegogo@spaceconcordia.ca

On behalf of the Robotics team, We thank you for your contribution!