NASA Solarbeam

(Credit for making the video goes to Luc Bettaieb, member of the NASA Solarbeam team)

In short, NASA Solarbeam was the informal name given to the "conceptual" project a team 3 other interns and I completed for NASA's 2013 Summer Robotics Academy at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) for 10 weeks. For the project, my team and I implemented a 5-foot tower capable of autonomously tracking light from a high-wattage ARRI Daylight spotlight and manually redirecting the captured light into an area where the light cannot directly reach. The purpose of the project was to demonstrate the feasibility of such a tower on the southern end of the moon, where a space mission may require a rover to travel into a large crater whose walls prevent sun light from reaching therein.

For more information on the project, please watch the project's video, visit the website, and/or read the final paper submitted to NASA. Information on the Solarbeam and other Robotic Academy projects can also be found on NASA's website (see the link "NASA Robotics Academy 2013" below).

NASA Robotics Academy 2013

Website

Final Paper