CircuitMess, Geek Club Tease a Collaborative Educational Kit Based on NASA's Perseverance Rover
Following the success of its Batmobile bundle, CircuitMess is aiming for the stars — or the Red Planet — with its latest robotics kit.
Educational electronics specialist CircuitMess has announced a partnership with Geek Club for its latest hardware kit: a functional model of NASA's Perseverance rover.
"If someone had approached me a few years ago, suggesting that we'd have the privilege of collaborating with a company we deeply admire and embarking on the ambitious journey of creating a DIY Space Rover, I wouldn’t believe you," says CircuitMess co-founder Albert Gajšak of his company's latest partnership. "Two companies, two crazy scientists, and one goal: to bring space exploration to your desk."
The CircuitMess/Geek Club collaboration sees the two companies working together to build a licensed scale model of NASA's Perseverance rover, which landed on the she surface of Mars a little over two years ago with the mission of studying the Jezero Crater area in search of any signs of past microbial life on the Red Planet.
The kit isn't just for show, though: like other CircuitMess products, it's designed to be an educational endeavor for introducing programming, electronics, and robotics concepts. The kit-form model comes with four motors, six wheels, a control system with a dual-core Espressif ESP32 processor, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a sample collection arm based on the real thing with two servo motors, a Wi-Fi-connected remote controller, and support for programming in Python or via a Scratch-inspired drag-and-drop visual coding environment.
This isn't CircuitMess' first vehicle-based project kit, nor its first partnership on pairing it to a full-size vehicle: in 2021 the company launched a crowdfunding campaign for a kit based on the Batmobile, a build-it-yourself scale model of Batman's iconic motor with autonomous capabilities and a Batarang-themed remote control.
"We’ve studied thousands of official documents and blueprints to craft an authentic experience," claims Geek Club co-founder Nicolas Deladerrière of the kit, which is due to launch following a planned Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign soon.
Those looking for more information can find it on the CircuitMess website.
