Our Design

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.