Marvin the Martian’s Martian Rover (of perseverant LEGO bricks (from Mars))

[Funkworks]

Marvin the Martian:
Do you remember the other day when my collection of Earthlings escaped from Mars while I was building a model of so-called “Thunderbird” rocket-engine-propelled apparatus?



Well I was quite angry when I realized it was gone, and as a measure of relaxation, I have decided to try a new hobby. I will be attempting the construction of an unidentified object that has been roving in my neighborhood lately. I hope my build will serve as proof that UROs - unidentified roving objects - do exist here on Mars!

For my project, I will be using nothing but hollow slabs of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene having various geometries. As you can see, I just happen to have a slab of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene with one particular geometry right here! Isn’t it lovely?



I shall call my URO: “the Perseveringly Roving Chariot of Instruments”.

And now, let us begin, hmm?

 

[Funkworks]

Marvin:

I will be building this in my workshop where I have a large glass window behind looking at the beautiful Martian sky. Isn’t that nice?

Now, K9 sorted the parts into 9 bags, and here is bag number 1. Let’s organize the parts.





Parts will now be easier to find. This is how my relatives make 2D puzzles!

The first assembly is for the landing gear of a helicopter.





Next, we have the body, and a solar array, which is for charging six lithium-ion batteries inside the helicopter. It appears that the solar cells are optimized for the solar spectrum of Mars, and the stored energy is used to operate heaters for the cold Martian nights as well as to power the helicopter during flight. Power expended by the helicopter during an up-to-90-second flight is about 350 watts.







And the atmospheric-dependent flying device is complete! I must say it is quite primitive, but it will make a fine decoration hanging from the ceiling of my shed!

 

[Antares JS]

Do you have a Lego store near you that you were able to get this from on release day? I'm envious. I have to wait for stupid shipping.

 

[Funkworks]

Do you have a Lego store near you that you were able to get this from on release day? I'm envious. I have to wait for stupid shipping.

I think it was released today in other stores too. There was a small line up at the door before it opened.

 

[mjennings]

Nice love the Marvin Narration. Mine is also being shipped. Even with a close store I still buy most big stuff online.

 

[Funkworks]

Marvin: The 9 bags of parts can be identified as follows:

- Small bag 1
- Large bag 1
- Small bag 2
- Large bag 2
- Small bag 3
- Large bag 3
- Small bag 4
- Large bag 4
- Wheels

These are all the “1” parts. They do not fit in a single picture all at once!



I will now start building the roving chariot of instruments!

Here is an angled brace to hold up a power source in the back:



And here is the core of that power source lying on its side. It is a stack of heat sources!



The material emitting heat for each heat source would appear to be plutonium 238 in the oxidized form of plutonium dioxide, covered in a protective iridium metal cladding. A graphite shell protects each cladded heat source, and a carbon fiber sleeve protects each graphite shell. Thermoelectric modules are mounted on the graphite shell, and the assembly of heat sources is covered in a white aeroshell.



Here are radiator fins around the aeroshell to dissipate the extra heat produced by the plutonium heat sources! Together with cooling tubes mounted on the aeroshell, the completed assembly forms a nuclear battery providing 2 kW of power to the chariot!







https://mars.nasa.gov/internal_resources/788/
https://www.powermag.com/the-nuclear-battery-aboard-perseverance-the-next-gen-mars-rover/
https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Mars-2020-rover-gets-radioisotope-fuel

 

[mjennings]

Mine showed up last evening. Hopefully I'll get to start it soon!

 

[Funkworks]

Marvin: I will now fabricate an enclosure to house the nuclear power supply, which incidentally appears to be used for charging two separate 28-volt lithium ion batteries, each one containing eight 43-amp-hour cells in series. These parts at my feet are for the back wall of the enclosure, hence of the entire chariot:



Here are the right side and an identical left side. I cannot tell which is which.



The 3 walls are seen here assembled around the power source.



These next parts are for a linkage mechanism to maneuver an instrument I will build and describe later.



As each one of a pair of knobs to be installed at the end of the long shafts on your right-hand side will be twisted, the long shaft will apply torque to a so-called “universal” joint in the middle, which will transmit the torque to a short red shaft on your left-hand side, regardless of the angle between the long shaft and the short red shaft. It is a very ancient mechanical trick that Earthlings still use for many of their devices!



Here is the shaft assembly mounted through fins of the power supply. The knobs I mentioned are the white extensions to the long shafts.



The enclosure is not complete as I must build 4 more walls such that when seen from the back, the power supply will look like an elongated octagon, or as we call them here on Mars: an octagon of symmetry p4, which is one of 11 symmetries that an octagon can have. Here are the various kinds of parts I will be using to build those 4 additional walls:



And here are the parts assembled into those 4 walls:



I have mounted the 4 new walls angularly around the power supply. Only 2 are visible because the 2 other ones are hidden underneath and against the floor.



And here is a view of the elongated octagon of symmetry p4! These 2 white knobs are for transmitting torque to the 2 short red shafts way behind me:



To remember the function of each knob, I have applied a decal indicating vertical and horizontal axes and/or planes of movement. An animated body of any kind will now be able to maneuver instruments connected to the shaft extremities remotely through the knobs!

https://www.eaglepicher.com/resources/news-and-events/eaglepicher-batteries-are-returning-mars/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_joint
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octagon

 

[Funkworks]

Marvin: These parts are to build a mechanism with two axes of rotation about two small arcs. The black shafts are along one axis of rotation ...



… and the red shafts are along another axis of rotation. The yellow 4-tooth gear is like the spider gear of a differential but the mechanism as a whole is not a differential because the rotations will only be along shorts arcs, and not complete circles, so I would call it a gimbal.



The gimbal is seen here mounted in front of the 2 short red shafts of the remote mechanism.



These large disks will be to mount a suspension for some wheels.



When connected as pairs, they form turn tables.



But the disks will not be used as turn tables as I must mount planes to them like so:



… which planes are to be vertical walls of the chariot, like this!



And here are the rest of the parts from bag number 2:



I will be using them next to make very interesting gear assemblies!