To gather soil, a vertical Drill capable of rotating around its axis in either direction is used to dig a hole in the soil. This Drill will pass through a pipe structure which will prevent spreading of soil.
With the help of lead screw and guide rails we gave motion to the soil collection box and also to the drill. The entire system is moved downwards in order to collect as much soil as possible.
A rotating container consisting of 5 different compartments is designed to store the soil from different test sites.
Various Sensors like BMP180, MQ5, MQ135, FC-28, DHT-11 etc. are employed on rover for analysis of soil characteristics.
BMP180 is used to calculate pressure and temperature of surrounding environment.
MQ5 and MQ135 are used to detect the presence of various gases in the atmosphere.
FC-28 is used to detect the sense the moisture content of the soil.
DHT-11 is used to sense the sub-surface temperature and humidity under the ground.
The objective is to investigate several sites using minimally-invasive measurements for evidence of photosynthetic microorganisms, bacterial colonies, or other microbial extremophiles.
Of each site, atleast two pictures are captured: one, a close-up high-resolution picture and the other, a wide-angle panorama along with cardinal directions, GPS coordinates, elevation, scale and accuracy range.
Various sensors like FC-28, MQ35, MQ135, BMP180 etc. are mounted on the rover for detecting the pressure, temperature and moisture of the soil and the surrounding environment.
