The cart lives inside HESTIA, while the robot portion lives inside the Airlock to prevent dust contamination inside. When there is repair needed outside of the habitat, both parts will join inside of the Airlock to transport tools and remove parts in need of repair.

MMWR uses a Local Positioning System to find repair sites on Mars, but is also equipped with hand controllers incase the astronaut performing repairs needs a slight manual adjustment in MMWR location on site. The workstation has an instructional monitor to assist with repair and part removal, and has the capability to rise and crouch to different work heights on rugged terrain for its user.

Dust is one of the largest risk factors on Mars for keeping habitat systems running properly. Before dirty tools and parts are brought inside HESTIA, the workstation will be connected to high pressured air system and vacuum that will clean parts to mitigate dust remaining. MMWR also has additional slide out workspace to aid in repair.

Docking/ Undocking Process with HESTIA Airlock

Above pictures both miniature early prototypes, and a larger prototype created to confirm astronaut’s ability to easily access different components comfortably with the astronaut suit glove and other factors of limited mobility.

Ideation Process/ Communication with partner Carolina Briano