20 MAY/JUNE 2017 SPORT ROCKETRY
by Frank Di Cosimo, NAR 94313 SR
The Mission
The idea for what would become the
Mestler Project was spawned by a conver-
sation I had with my father about Curios-
ity's mission to Mars and the complexities
of the Sky Crane landing. Shortly after
that conversation I began brainstorming
on how I might accomplish something
similar; certainly, not as technically chal-
lenging but nonetheless challenging in its
own right. By my own definition the proj-
ect hardware would require a launch vehi-
cle, a lander, and a rover. The project logic
would require an autonomous lander and
abilities to remote control the rover with a
live POV video feed.
Unlike other rocket build goals, maxi-
mum altitude was intentionally avoided.
The primary project goal was to launch,
land, and remotely control a rover, not set
an altitude record. I arbitrary set a maxi-
mum altitude of 1500 to 2000 feet with
the intention of keeping the landing events
within a reasonable distance from the
launch site (weather-inspired drift permit-
ting) and possibly within visual range.
The lander name "Mestler" was in-
(Top right) Photo 1. Mestler logo.
(Above) Figure 2. The Mestler Project
mission stages.
Latest "RUD Club" Member:
The MesTler ProjecT
