28 Jun Luke Fritsche RoSE Lab Internship Week 3

This week was very eventful!

For the internship, we had our PDR (Preliminary Design Review), for the rover. We presented our work to the lab lead, Dr Frankie Zhu, and other professors and people who joined. It was nerve wracking but very good experience. It went well, the slideshow was over 100 slides long and the presentation was 2 and a half hours. It paved the path for the CDR (Critical Design Review) in a few weeks. Aside from that, we continued working on the rover designs according to some points in the PDR. We had to make some revisions for certain requirements, such as editing the wheel design or changing the materials for the drums. I worked mostly on the wheels but worked on drums as well later in the week. I ran calculations for both to ensure they would work properly, and learned a lot about static mechanics and terramechanics in the process. The drums and wheels are now mostly finished. We ordered the parts to make a prototype for the drums this upcoming week, and hopefully we will get to do the same with the wheel.

Aside from work at the lab, we had a very fun and eventful week as well. At the end of last week, we went to an escape room in Arvada about repairing a submarine you are in during WWII. It was immersive and challenging but we finished with 8 minutes to spare. Throughout the week I continued to go to the Rec center every day to work out, swim, and run. Sometimes we played basketball at their courts as well. Having a Rec center to go to is great and is something I’m looking forward to if I go here for college. This weekend, we went to a trampoline park in Denver called Skyzone for a couple hours. We had a great time playing a round of football with other teenagers there, dunking on trampoline basketball hoops, and playing dodgeball against an army of children. There was a lot to do at this trampoline park and we were able to get to it all. Aswell, today (Sunday), I got to go to the Heights church in Denver again. Exploring Golden and Denver and the surrounding areas has been great, and I can’t wait to see more of it in the coming weeks.

(Had some pretty crazy thunderstorms this week)