The Maritime Autonomous Rescue Vehicle (MARV) is a rescue aid for NASA’s Artemis Program, an ongoing crewed spaceflight program for lunar exploration. In the event of a contingency landing of the Orion capsule that launches the astronauts into space, a Class II UAV will drop MARV into the ocean in order to autonomously locate and support the survival of a separated astronaut. MARV's design was determined through diligent configuration optimization, impact analysis, subsystem testing, impact survival testing, and vehicle control testing. I worked extensively on mechanical design, CAD, manufacturing, and assembly efforts for MARV. I led the design of the antenna rotation subsystem that protects MARV's antennas during the drop, and ensures that the antennas are oriented correctly regardless of which side MARV lands on. A more detailed explanation of this subsystem can be found in the full project report attached below.
MARV was awarded the Francis G. Tatnall Prize for an outstanding senior design project showing ingenuity, proficiency, and usefulness in the Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics Senior Design Competition. The team would have advanced to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Design Day Competition, but the competition was cancelled due to COVID-19. MARV was also selected to compete in the NASA Micro-G NEXT Challenge at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. However, this competition was also cancelled due to COVID-19.