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Engineering
Challenge
| The
central element of Flight to Mars
is based on the principles and dynamics of
a hard landing specifically designed
for a limited air pressure environment,
such as that on the planet Mars, with the
object of protecting a critical payload.
Such a landing is consistent with the
requirements of NASA and JPL's Mars
Pathfinder mission and that of future
missions. Several months of preparation
sessions were required.
It included research on the
Internet with the goal of designing,
building, testing, evaluating, reporting
and presenting a completed project that
assesses components of a controlled
landing.
The proposed activity is based on
one developed by NASA and JPL.
Students investigated and
researched different types of materials to
discover what gives materials properties
suitable for protecting a payload; what
common materials are available for
testing; and what is the trade-off between
materials and availability, cost, weight,
volume, safety, ease of use.
Using a design brief, the scenario
was stated and criteria given for a
problem to be solved within certain
specifications. With commonly
available materials, the students
designed, built, tested, evaluated,
presented and reported on a structure
built to effectively insulate a payload to
meet mission specifications. All New
York State Teaching
Standards were met. |
The
very egg-like Mars Exploration Rover
in real life with its solar shell
folded. |
Public
Science Day Showcase Events
LIMSAT
at Mitchel Field ran the events, beginning
with the main attraction, the engineering
challenge at the adjoining Nassau
Community College.
Students individually showcased
their projects using a science fair type
format in which the weight of each project
was verified before testing. Mindful
of the safety issues, we asked our
committee and NTEA Vice President Joe Fili
in particular to devise a special release
mechanism to be operated only by a
supervising adult. He came up with a
marvelous device with a rotating arm that
uniformly allowed each project to release
over the target zone. He went still
further to create an automated start to
the clock that would record flight times.
The engineering challenge protocol
follows:
PROBLEM
There
has been a major catastrophe at the Mars
Colony. The livestock cocoon housing
the resident chicken population sprang a
leak and before any of the Martian
colonists could respond, the unfortunate
chickens all expired.
It so happens that eggs are a major staple
on Mars and a new flock of egg laying
chickens will be delivered on the next
shuttle flight in three months. In
the interim, an emergency egg delivery
mission has been undertaken and your team
is a candidate for the position of Lead
Engineering Team whose mission it will be
to get eggs to the colony posthaste.
Because of the need to do this in a hurry,
the only possible method will be to
transport one egg at a time from the cargo
space craft to the surface of the planet.
The team’s assignment, should they
choose to accept, is to design, build, and
test a single egg package capable of
delivering an unbroken raw, grade A, large
egg to the surface of the planet, meeting
all of the requirements herein with a
creative design. The name of the
team’s Drop Transport Vehicle (DTV) must
reflect the concept of the creative
design.
THE
COMPETITION
Many candidate Engineering Teams are
anxious to be named Lead Engineering Team
and your team doesn’t want to end up
with egg on your collective faces, so to
speak – so listen up!!!
In order to select the most qualified team
for the high and exalted position of Lead
Engineering Team, the NASA/Mars Ad Hoc
Emergency Egg Drop Committee will conduct
a competitive, public, 10 meter drop test
of each candidate team’s submitted
demonstration DTV to see which candidate
team comes up with a demonstrable model
that will cushion a dropped egg such that
it is still unbroken after impact with a
hard surface.
CAVEATS
The test will be performed here on earth
where both the atmospheric density and
gravitational pull is significantly higher
than that on Mars. When the physics
of free fall is examined, earthly
aerodynamic lift or drag effects will more
than offset those of gravity and,
consequently, the earthbound DTV’s will
perform better here than they will on
Mars.
CONSTRAINTS
The cargo spacecraft carrying the DTV
packaged eggs to Mars has limited space
and the colony needs many, many eggs.
Also, the cost of sending an egg to Mars
is astronomical. One estimate is
that the cost for each gram placed in
Martian orbit is $10,000.
The winning design will have to adhere to
the following requirements:
·
No
pyrotechnic devices are allowed
·
No
material harmful to human health is
allowed
·
Total
DTV size (including a release plate –
see below) prior to release not to exceed
33 cm in any one dimension
·
Each
team will be provided with a DTV release
plate. The DTV must be attached to
or hung from this plate. The top
half of the plate must be totally clear of
any DTV material.
A
panel of experts, basing its findings upon
the following material criteria, will
verify the cost of the DTV based upon the
design disclosure statement.
·
A
rubber band or other elastic strap
$5,000
each or $1,000 per inch of circumference
or length if a strap is
used rather
than a band.
·
Mechanisms
(to deploy drogues, extend wings, or in
any way change the geometry of the package
after release)
$100,000 per mechanism (a single mechanism
is defined as a performing a single change
in geometry such as deploying a drogue –
a sequential operation such as first
ejecting an ablation shield and secondly
deploying the drogue would be considered
as two mechanisms)
·
$50,000
for sequencers used to control geometry
changes
·
Overall
Weight
$10,000 per gram including the weight of
the egg.
·
Cushion
material
Allowable Cushion materials (bubble wrap,
Styrofoam peanuts, breakfast cereal,
semisolid foods, etc.) used on a Mars
mission would have to be sterilized.
Such sterilization is not necessary for
the DTV but any such highly sterile
material has a significant cost.
$5,000
per gram for sterilization.
·
Binding
material
String,
thread, cord, rope, chain, etc.
<=
1/8 inch diameter - $2,000 per inch of
length
>
1/8 inch diameter - $3,500 per inch of
length
Tape
or straps of any kind
<=
½ inch wide - $5,000 per inch of length
>
½ inch wide < =1 inch wide - $7,500
per inch of length
>
1 inch wide - $10,000 per inch of
length
·
Other
Structural Materials
Structural
materials made of metal, plastic, wood,
paper, cardboard, Styrofoam sheet, etc.
Sheet
material <= 5 mm thick - $1,150 per sq
cm
All
other material - $3,500 per cu cm
·
Testing
No
space program proceeds without testing.
You may conduct numerous pretests at your
own school prior to the competition.
Applicants will be honor bound to report
on the number of tests performed.
Since
numerous eggs would expect to be dropped
to the surface of Mars were this a real
situation, the cost of testing would be
spread over many eggs. For our
purposes, we’ll assume that 100 eggs
will be dropped and therefore only 1% of
the cost of testing will be charged to
each egg.
$35,000
per test
SUBMITTALS
Each applicant will submit a design
disclosure statement including a list of
materials used and their associated Mars
costs presented on a storyboard.
Each applicant will submit, in a sturdy
container constructed from cardboard, wood
or other suitable material, a demonstrable
DTV enclosing one large, grade A, raw egg.
The DTV must fit snugly into the
container. Both the container and
DTV must be marked with the applicant’s
team name and school, and the DTV’s
weight (in grams) and Mars cost.
DEMONSTRATION
The DTV, in its container will be turned
over to the NASA/Mars Ad Hoc Emergency Egg
Drop Committee Member.
A NASA/Mars Ad Hoc Emergency Egg Drop
Committee Member will remove the DTV from
its container, verify the weight and
maximum dimension, and attach the DTV to
the egg drop mechanism by means of a the
supplied drop plate.
The
DTV will then be dropped 10 meters onto a
surface simulating the selected landing
site on Mars.
Three
measures will be taken:
·
The
drop will be timed and verified by the
NASA/Mars Ad Hoc Emergency Egg Drop
Committee by means of videotape reviews.
·
The
DTV impact area must be within 1 meter of
the target impact point. The Landing
Zone (LZ) will be a 2 meter circle
centered 10 meters directly beneath the
DTV release mechanism.
·
The
DTV will be opened and inspected by a
member of the applicant team using small
hand tools provided by the applicant team.
Note – No external power source will be
available. Power tools must be
battery operated. A broken, cracked
or dented egg will disqualify the DTV.
A NASA/Mars Ad Hoc Emergency Egg Drop
Committee Member will witness the DTV
opening. The opening time must not
exceed 30 seconds to qualify.
RANKING
Each surviving egg package (within maximum
dimension, landing within LZ, and
delivering the egg into the LZ undamaged)
will receive three rankings:
Category
1 – Most Technically Effective Design:
R1
= Weight (gm) X Drop Time (seconds)
Category 2 – Least Costly Design
R2 =
Mars Cost (dollars)
Category III – Most Cost Effective
Design
R3 = R1
X R2
The
winner in each category will have the
lowest ranking.
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