ISS Team Competes in Designing Tool for Use in Asteroid Exploration

An Illinois Space Society (ISS) team is designing a tool to collect surface rocks in microgravity as part of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) competition.

The team is participating in Microgravity University’s Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (Micro-g NExT) program. The team is competing in the Float Sample Grabber Challenge to design the tool NASA could use as part of manned missions to explore asteroids beyond Low Earth Orbit.

Prototypes of selected teams' spacewalking tools will be used by astronauts for spacewalk training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The prototypes will be tested in the simulated microgravity environment of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) — a 6.2 million gallon indoor pool where NASA astronauts perform complex training activities in advance of their assigned space missions. This project coincides with the 50^th anniversary of NASA extravehicular activity.

According to the contest specifications, asteroids are interesting to scientists because they are among the solar system’s most primitive bodies. Of specific interest are loosely adhered surface rocks called float samples. NASA needs a way to collect the samples without cross contamination between worksites.

The ISS team’s Cronus Sample Collection Tool is a 100 percent mechanical device composed of three containment chambers attached to a rotating exchanger. Team members believe the independent chambers will reduce the chances of sample cross contamination.

The contest requires the mechanisms be designed so that they are manually operated using a single hand. The Cronus Tool is comprised of a three-container tripod to isolate and collect three individual samples. The tripod is spun around using the trigger and is opened and closed using the push button on the top of the rear face of the grip. The main trigger uses a gear system and the push button uses a piston-pulley system.

To reduce the device’s construction time, the ISS team proposes building Cronus from 3D printed pieces. The team believes this plan will allow for rapid tool production and enable adaptability to space missions.

Microgravity University in February selected teams for the competition, and testing of the devices will occur this summer.

ISS team members are:

• AE junior Christopher Lorenz, Microgravity Team Lead
• AE junior Alexander Case, Mechanical Design Specialist
• AE sophomore Steven Macenski, Additive Manufacturing Specialist
• AE freshman Paul DeTrempe, Design and CAD Specialist
• Electrical Engineering freshman Michelle Jim, Materials Specialist
• AE sophomore William Asher, Educational Outreach Lead
• AE Assistant Prof. Grace Gao, Faculty Advisor