21 Jun Luke Fritsche RoSE Lab Internship Week 2

There goes week 2!

Lab work picked up this week at the RoSE Lab as we are prepping for the PDR this upcoming Monday (June 22). PDR stands for Preliminary Design Review and it is basically where the IPEx Rover team presents our work to the head of the lab, Dr Frankie Zhu, as well as anyone else who wants to come to the presentation. The first half of the week consisted of mostly continuing our research, planning, and beginning to design the parts of the rover. The back half of the week was mostly preparing the slideshow for the PDR, which is well over 100 slides long. I’ve begun mostly working on the wheels subsystem of the rover, using physics and math to ensure it will work properly and be able to stay above the ground and have enough traction to move with the required speed in the required conditions. The work continues to be very interesting, and amazing experience for someone hoping to be an engineer. As well as work, the lab environment is great. We have watch parties at the lab often for the World Cup and sometimes even put it on the projector while we work.

(The MLSS, a huge lunar test bed filled with Lunar Regolith to simulate Lunar Conditions)

Life in Golden is still very fun. We go to the Rec Center almost every day for swimming, basketball, or working out. We got to explore more of the town and some of its biking trails. Gunnar Robinson and I went to a church we had never been to called The Heights and it was great. Cooking our meals every night from home has been great experience and I’m learning a lot about how to maintain a house and living space. I love living in Golden and these two weeks have already been a really great preview of the Colorado School of Mines which I had already been considering for college. Can’t wait to see what the next 4 weeks hold!