Update from our student Owen in the Space Mining studio:

The illustration below, which I created using 3d Studio Max, shows the mining pod that will be carrying the mining equipment to the asteroid. It is shaped as an extruded heptagon. When the pod falls onto the asteroid it will end up rolling. When the rolling stops, the pod will open. Because of the way it will open, it will correct itself if it isn’t upright. The pod opens using two hydraulic jacks that push the heptagons apart. As the heptagons are pushed apart, they go down because they are attached to the base of the pod with hinges. Four elastic bands, which connect the heptagons to walls of the pod, help unfold the pod. When the pod is fully open, it releases an acid onto the asteroid followed by an adhesive. That effectively grounds the container to the asteroid.

Students have been spending the last few days creating their sci-fi visions based on mathematical calculations (space mining) or pure imagination (film fiction).

Read the rest of this entry »

A post by one of our students, Owen Canavan:

One of the things we were shown on the first Monday of the space mining studio was a gravity simulator. This is a program that lets you set the location and velocity of up to four objects and see them in motion.

The program can be used for a variety of things; in this case it shows the orbit of a moon going around a planet. The blue line represents where the moon goes, while the red shows the orbit of the planet.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the goals of Space Mining is to teach engineering first-hand. On the second day of space mining, the students put on their engineering caps to model and design water rockets.

The first step in engineering is to understand the problem. For that, we need a model, a [usually] simplified understanding of how our problem behaves.  Today, we accept the equation that tells us how gravity behaves: Force_gravity= G*mass1*mass2/distance². We are so confident in it, that we chart the courses of satellites, and observe the motions of the Universe with it. But, in his day, Sir Issac Newton recorded the motion of the planets for years in order to derive this now-accepted model.  

Read the rest of this entry »

Today, we started our second round of studios. The two studios are space mining and film fiction. Here is a summary of day 1 at Space Mining by our student Kris Bronner:

The gray, rainy morning in no way reflected the first half of the day of the Space Mining Studio. A colorful illustration started the studio as we went through “The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D.“ The reason, David explained, was to demonstrate that Ph.Ds., such as himself, are very knowledgeable in specific topics, but that they cannot answer everything! He noted, at least, that It was also very a very interesting perspective on the evolution of one’s knowledge throughout their life. Following the demonstration, we dove right into a synopsis of the forthcoming studio. During the briefing we all researched ideas for which our space mission would accomplish (examples: which elements we wanted to bring back, which asteroids to visit, etc.). The overview subsequently led us into a focused discussion of the force known as gravity. We examined the gravity mathematically, visually (with My Solar System 2.02), and graphically (with a spread sheet). We must all understand what physical ‘boundaries’ and ‘adherences’ must be paid attention to in space.

After the break, we were all ready to tackle gravity, spreadsheets, and propulsion. We learned in great detail how to create spreadsheets on both “Google docs” and Microsoft Excel. This demonstration was specifically on using spreadsheets to create functions that map the gravitational effect on three objects and their consequential movements. (Can be seen here: Gravitation). As soon as we understood what keeps us down, it was time to see how we could lift off.

Propulsion was the second major subject of the afternoon— understanding how rockets launch and reach Outer Space. This started off with the “book/box throwing demo,” involving throwing high-mass objects at a cushion. The purpose of this was to show that as the student threw the object, they were pushed the opposite direction from the path of the projectile. Thus, we learned that propulsion occurs in Space Missions also when its empty-tanks are jettisoned.

Propulsion led us to the black board and the introduction of the water-rocket project. Later this week, we are going to be launching our own water rockets, seeing how our knew knowledge will help us understand how to make a more efficient Space Mission. David illustrated the two phases of a spaceship propulsion (in this case, a water-rocket), being from the water/pressure, and then jettison of the remaining water. As a group, we put our physics knowledge together to create a set of equations to estimate the rocket’s final height and time (in phase two).