Micro-g NeXT
Project team building a tool for astronaut use
Micro-g NExT, or the Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Team challenge, was my second experience being on a technical team with Illinois Space Society (ISS). The challenge consists of choosing a category that NASA proposes, then building whatever it is your team decides. Like the name suggests, the end product is tested at the NASA Johnson Space Center Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.
During my sophomore year, I joined this team and I was excited to explore how this would be different from the rocketry team I was on the year prior. I was excited to work on some CAD and design, as my mechanical engineering classes focused on these things more than my aerospace engineer friends in ISS.
Our team ended up choosing the category of designing a lunar regolith-proof tool with the purpose of collecting rock samples on the moon. We ended up designing LeTo, or the Lunar Excavation Tool. It has a long rod design for astronauts to not bend over as much. At the top was a handle that was designed to be easy to maneuver even with the bulky gloves astronauts use. This handle would rotate about the rod center axis, which was connected to one of the two nested drums at the bottom of the tool. In this way, an opening and closing container would allow the astronaut to handle regolith samples. On the very bottom of the tool there were gaps that would allow fine regolith dust and smaller particles to filter out while keeping the samples contained.
I learned many practical skills through this group and had a lot of fun doing so. I liked employing the design and CAD techniques I learned from classes. I also thoroughly enjoyed the process the team went through with prototyping the tool. It really showed me how building a test as quickly and cheaply as possible helps inform future design steps. I also learned about the many safety and protocol documents that come along with projects such as this.
Partway through this project, COVID-19 shut down schooling across the nation. It was difficult to still assist the team, but it was worth it to see our tool being tested at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. This video shows our final tool demonstration. Shout out to team lead David Gable who did a fantastic job teaching everyone and delegating tasks. It’s him you hear in the demonstration video guiding the “astronaut”. He also had to do much of the assembly on his own after COVID hit.
