Mars Tumbleweed: A new way to explore Mars

Mars Tumbleweed is a novel design for a wind powered surface rover to collect atmospheric and geological data at multiple locations on Mars. The project was broken down into four major phases: Preliminary Design, Downselect, Primary Design, and Manufacturing. During Primary Design, four Mars Tumbleweed designs were considered and analyzed. In the Downselect Phase, the Box Kite concept was chosen. The Primary Design Phase developed it into a Tumbleweed Earth Demonstrator vehicle called TED. This vehicle will demonstrate the capability to operate on the surface of a planet, and to collect and transmit science data. During the Manufacturing Phase, the TED was built with an instrumentation package in the core. The instrumentation included a GPS receiver, for use on earth, accelerometers, pressure transducers, temperature sensors, and a video camera. The data collected are transmitted to a remote ground station.