Phileas: A mars rovers first “steps”

21. May 2010

We can smell sweat and hot metal when we enter the workshop. The sound strengthens the impression we get from the smell: Obviously, somebody works pretty hard in here!

We find our way past tool boxes, a grinding machine as well as metal cutters and power drills. In the back corner of the room we finally find what we are looking for: a skeleton – albeit, one made out of metal, fitting to the surroundings. It is one part of the chassis of the new PolAres rover. We become witnesses of the last finishing touches done by Florian Ehrenreich and Kevin Gastner, before we stand in front of the first model of “Phileas”: a super-sized, metallic bug which moves its six legs uncoordinated.

The students of the final year of the HTBL Kapfenberg have invested a lot of time and work into this project – under the supervision of the
workshopmanager, Mr Kulmhofer. Their teacher, Mr. Komatz, compliments them: “This is a very ambitious project, which the students have taken onto them. Also the metal works are not easily done.”

We lift the first version of Phileas into a Fiat Punto, a task which needs a fair amount of coordination, before we drive off to Innsbruck. Here, Phileas will be a guest of honour at the first PolAres workshop.