Micro-G – CyRocks – NASA competition team through Make to Innovate

Our Design

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Triple Actuating & Locking INterface (TALIN)

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The Triple Actuating & Locking INterface (TALIN) is a design developed by Iowa State University engineering students. This device utilizes an impression-pin surface interface, which can securely anchor to a variety of rock surfaces. TALIN is designed to deploy quickly by the operator, ergonomic for use with extravehicular activity with EVA gloves, and provides a locking mechanism that allows the device to remain in its clamped position without the operator present. The user squeezes the locking mechanism handle to apply clamping force on the desired rock face to use the device. To release TALINS's anchoring interfaces, the operator pushes upward on the release lever and slides the locking mechanism handle up the primary shaft to pull the device open. TALIN meets all of NASA's challenge requirements, is safe to use, and will be manufactured for Neutral Buoyancy Lab testing. The device is engineered to assist Artemis astronauts in sample collection and is modular enough to be adapted to other anchoring purposes needed by NASA to advance space exploration.

TALIN has three main components: the surface mechanisms, locking mechanism, and claw. The claw mechanism is the main bar shaft that is the core of our device. The claw includes the grabbing mechanism towards the bottom of the device that is used to pick up rocks. The locking mechanism is attached to the bar shaft and includes housing for our trigger, spring, and release bar. The surface mechanisms hold the actuating pins and foam to act as the anchor to surfaces.

Our progress in pictures!

Progress made

Our team has worked very hard this last half of the semester making progress. Our main 3 categories of our progress would be in manufacturing, testing, and outreach. Our team had three STEM engagement outreach events. Two with the Women in Science and Engineering Go Further Conferences for female students interested in pursuing STEM. Followed by one Science Bound event for minority students interested in STEM. We led the students through an activity to design their own lunar reusable surface anchoring device focusing on the "grabbing" portion of the design. We have completed all of our testing at this point in the competition. We continuously conducted open air tests with large boulders outside measuring the anchoring force our device could provide. Then, we tested our device in the Iowa State Student Innovation Center's Regolith Simulator. This allowed our team to see the functionality of our device in abrasive and dusty conditions that simulate the Moon's lunar regolith. The team then tested TALIN in the Iowa State Neutral Buoyancy Lab. This was the most important test because not only will our device be tested underwater at NASA, but the pool also simulates a microgravity environment. Another important test we did was the EVA glove testing. This was to ensure the dexterity and ergonomics of our device. It is crucial that the astronaut is able to operate the device with gloved hands. Overall, the tests all proved to be successful and were milestones in our project. Each test helped our improve our device and find out new things as well.

Our manufacturing team has done lots of rapid prototyping and found the best design after many iterations. We decided on the surface mechanisms having foam, 30 degrees angled pins We also added shoulder screws to the surface mechanisms that allows the surface mechanisms to lay completely in line with the surface when anchoring to a flat surface. The locking mechanism was redone to be more ergonomic and to prevent lunar regolith from tampering with our device. Our device endcap on the main bar shaft was also increased in width to provide more mechanical advantage and a secure tethering point for anchoring. Safety features to the device have also been added. Knobs were added to each of the surface mechanisms to allow the user to safely manually adjust the mechanisms if they are in an unwanted position. The safe zones on the device such as a trigger, handle, and knobs were painted yellow to let the divers know where they can safely place their hands.

Reflection

Our team, like all others, has faced numerous challenges while facing this real life engineering issue. A project challenge we had was finding out that the foam in the surface mechanisms did not work well in the cold weather. Our device would provide very little clamping force when we tested outside in cold weather due to the foam getting stiff. This presented a challenge of not being able to do outdoor testing when it was cold outside. To solve this, we did our indoor testing in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) and regolith chamber while it was cold and saved the outdoor testing for when it warmer up outside. This does not present any real issue to the effectiveness of our device when it will be tested at the NBL at Johnson Space Center. The NBL is a pool heated to 88-90 degrees F, so the foam will work well in the warm water.

It doesn't stop here though! Even though the Micro-G NExT competition is a year long competition, CyRocks is hoping to extend that. We believe our device is robust and reliable enough for NASA to help the team continue the project. The team will be looking into more options of continuing the project after the semester ends and after testing week at the Johnson Space Center Neutral Buoyancy Lab in June.

Hardware Team

Team Structure

Team lead:
Sam Whitlock

Members:
Oliver Bohac
Sam Haley
Hunter Underwood

NASA Hardware Deliverables

Shipping Container Dimensions

Provides 10 pounds of holding force to a variety of rocks

Prototype Delivered to Johnson Space Center

Goals

Have team members learn more about manufacturing methods, SOLIDWORKS, engineering design and outreach, and NASA
Members can attend multiple outreach events to promote diversity and equality in engineering
Have the team learn about trial and error and that any successful device has many iterations

Milestones

Lift or anchor ten pound of force to a variety of rock surfaces
Manufacture the Final Prototype to send to Johnson Space Center
Add safety markings with yellow paint on device
Preparing for the M2I Design Expo

Operations Team

Team Structure

Team Lead:
Emilee Evans

Members:
Jack Mendoza
Rodrigo Romero
Trenton Turner

NASA Operations Deliverables

Outreach Final Report

Science Bound Events & Women In Science and Engineering Conferences completed

Goals

Successfully lead outreach events

Inspire high school students interested in STEM

Post on social media weekly

Budget effectively for outreach events

Manage Iowa Space Grant Consortium reports

Milestones

- M2I Website Checkpoint 2
- Outreach opportunities with different companies
- Preparing for the M2I Design Expo
- Complete presentation for Test Readiness Review in June
- Develop Final Test Instructions for NBL Divers

Testing

In addition to computational analysis, various physical testing has been conducted on multiple variations of the Triple Actuating and Locking INterface. By performing rapid prototyping, a multitude of testing was performed including bend testing on individual pins, open-air testing on various rock surfaces, regolith resistance testing, neutral buoyancy testing, and EVA glove testing.

We first had our regolith resistance test in the ISU Student Innovation Center's Regolith Chamber. This chamber simulates the effect of lunar dust of the life of mechanical components such as joints, bar slide, articulation elements, point of rotation of the surface mechanism, as well as the dust impermeability of the materials that the lunar anchoring device is made out of. In the long term, while operating within a dusty lunar environment, the three fundamental approaches to keeping mechanical equipment functioning are dust avoidance, dust removal, and dust tolerance.

Then, we tested our device in the ISU Neutral Buoyancy Lab. A major anchoring challenge requirement is testing the device in water. Neutral buoyancy labs are good simulation of a microgravity environment. Iowa State has it's own neutral buoyancy laboratory in the aerospace engineering department. The team used this opportunity to test TALIN underwater. The testing ensured that the device works properly underwater with adverse effects to prepare for the NASA testing in June.

The team also conducted EVA glove testing. TALIN is designed to easily function for astronauts in a lunar environment. An important requirement of the anchoring device challenge is for the device to be easily operable with EVA gloves. Iowa State University has an EVA glove that the team used to test the device. It is important to the team that the device is ergonomic since EVA gloves provide limited dexterity. This test ensured that the device functions properly with limited dexterity

About Micro-G

Micro-g NExT is a NASA based competition for undergraduate engineering students. Each year, NASA releases a number of space exploration challenges. It is our job as a Micro-g NExT design team to propose a solution to the challenge by designing and prototyping a device that adheres to NASA’s requirements.

Micro-g’s mission is to develop tools for NASA that would be useful in advancing space exploration and can function in microgravity environments. These tools are intended for various applicable space exploration uses, most notably lunar expeditions by astronauts in the upcoming Artemis missions. The ultimate goal is to generate new technology and ideas that could be used to better fulfill NASA’s space research and exploration goals.