LUNAR
ROVER.

The mechanical mass budget was ≤180 kg, including ≤70 kg chassis and ≤30 kg suspension allocations. The stowed envelope was 2.0 × 1.5 × 1.5 m, with a traverse-speed limit of 0.15 mph. These are design requirements, not measured rover performance.

I compared rigid and compliant wheels, tread geometry, rocker-bogie pivot placement, and regolith interaction. More wheel-ground contact area can reduce ground pressure and sinkage; larger wheels improve obstacle clearance but increase required axle torque for the same tractive force.

The baseline used a six-wheel rocker-bogie configuration, a 2000-series aluminum chassis, and a NiTi superelastic tire concept. Those choices balanced passive articulation, recoverable deformation, manufacturing, mass, and packaging.

I converted science objectives into requirements, interface definitions, traceability, and verification criteria. Mechanical design had to accommodate the robotic arm, instruments, power, thermal control, and terrain sensing while preserving clearance and wheel contact.

The team progressed through MCR, SRR, MDR, and PDR. The resulting package covered ConOps, architecture, interfaces, science instruments, budgets, FMEA, risk, schedule, cost, and verification planning.

This work reached preliminary design review. The CAD and calculations document a mission concept; physical regolith testing, environmental qualification, and flight validation are outside the demonstrated outcome.