Vanderbilt Robotics NASA Robotic Mining Competition

I took this picture this morning

 

This year the Vanderbilt Robotics team is competing in the NASA Robotic Mining Competition. This competition requires teams to design and fabricate an autonomous mining robot capable of mining and depositing subsurface material from martian terrain. Specifically, the robots must mine through 30 cm of BP-1(martian topsoil stimulant) to collect gravel, which serves as a stand in for icy regolith on Mars. The purpose of this competition is to innovate new and creative means of obtaining water from subsurface pockets of icy regolith on Mars through autonomous robotic applications.

 

And This one

 

As the Mechanical Team Lead, the design and fabrication of our robot has been quite a challenge. Although the robot will remain on Earth, it must be designed such that it could function and survive martian conditions (with some exceptions). This lead to countless hours of research, designing, and redesigning for me and my team. However, all of this hard work has paid off. After several late nights/all nighters  in the last few weeks, our robot is now functional. This was just in time for the May 1st deadline for proof of robot functionality. As shown in the video below, our robot uses an auger system that is actuated along two axes to drill into martian terrain and pull up icy regolith.

 

Here is the video of our robot

 

Next week we will head down to Cape Canaveral to compete alongside 50 other university teams from around the nation.

 

Wish us luck!

Project Orion: Blasting Off to the Stars

In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the US was in the midst of the cold war. At that point, the American space program had fallen far behind Soviet rocket technology. Desperate to upstage the Soviets, the US began to pour funding into seemingly crazy technological research. One of these projects being Project Orion.

In essence, Project Orion aimed to blast a rocket into space by exploding nuclear bombs beneath the vessel.  Through the use of dense radiation shielding and shock distribution systems, the vessel would remain intact as it dropped a continuous flow of explosives behind it.  To this end, this type of rocket was theorized to be able to travel at a significant percentage (0.3-10%) of the speed of light. For this reason, the Project Orion was considered for use in long distance space travel.

 

Although a large scale nuclear blast propelled rocket could potentially function well on paper, a full scale design has never been tested due to several impracticalities. From an environmental standpoint, the launch of such a rocked would require the detonation of several nuclear warheads within the earth’s atmosphere. This would lead to localized radiation of the surrounding environment. From a engineering standpoint, the back plate of such a rocket would have to be able to withstand hundreds nuclear blasts while dampening the the shock of sudden acceleration. Historically, research into Project Orion was ceased after the Partial Test Ban of 1963, a measure to help ease tension in the cold war.

 

While a large scale nuclear propelled rocket has never been created, it remains to be one of the only propulsion systems capable of moving a sizable craft to significant fractions of the speed of light.

 

 

Orbital Decay and China’s Space Station

 

All satellites in low Earth orbit will eventual fall victim to orbital decay.  Over time, a satellite will lose orbital energy through drag caused by friction with the atmosphere. Many large satellites, such as the ISS, employ small thrust to counter out the effects of orbital decay. However, as shown by China’s space station, for low earth satellites in without a propulsion system orbital decay is inevitable.

 

On April 2, 2018 China’s Tiangong-1 Space Station uncontrollably reentered Earths Atmosphere. The station reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the pacific. On March 21, 2016, the China National Space Administration announced that they had lost communication with the station. Up until now, the satellite’s position has been able to be tracked from Earth. However, uncertainty of the satellite’s position grew as it began reentry.  Although it had the potential to send debris to many major cities, it reentered over the ocean, causing no known damages.

Europa And The Search For Life

NASA

 

 

While the search for life on Mars is still ongoing, another planet may be the first world to where extraterrestrial life is found: Europa. Europa is a rocky moon of Jupiter, and it is known to have vast oceans of liquid water under thick sheets of water ice. Given it’s substantial size, it is thought to still have an active geology resulting in geothermal vents on the ocean’s floor. The heat released by these vents, combined with the mineral rich water surrounding the vents may provide a suitable home for extraterrestrial life.

 

In order to detect signs of life on Europa, NASA has prepared a preliminary plan for a lander mission. Before this expensive lander is launched, the Europa Clipper probe will fly by the frozen moon in order to confirm the presence of liquid water and geological activity as well as scout out a potential landing site for the lander. The Europa Clipper mission is planned to launch in 2022.

 

Contingent upon the findings of Europa Clipper the proposed lander will analyze geological activity on Europa and search for organic molecules on the surface. Although it will not likely be able to confirm life on Europa by directly observing it, it has the potential to find strong evidence of life.

Voyager; Humanity’s Furthest Trace

The Telegraph

NASA Archive

 

As time progresses, the sun will eventual expand, engulfing the rocky worlds of our solar system. With Earth vaporized, evidence of human life on Earth will disappear with the planet. Long after Earth’s demise the Voyager probes will continue to roam the cosmos, caring  evidence of human life, waiting to be discovered by an alien civilization.

 

While the Voyager probes were launched with the primary intent of the Voyager probes was to collect data on the giants planets of our solar system, the probes served the secondary purpose of transporting golden records into the interstellar space. After collecting data on the planners they flew by, the probes were gravitationally  slingshot out of the solar system. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 now drift on at speeds of 17 and 14 km/s respectively into interstellar space.

 

The record the probes carry contain pictures and audio that describe human science, culture, and society.  However, a playback device is needed to display this data. For this reason, the casing of the golden record contains instructions on how to built the playback device. Given that extraterrestrial life would have no grasp on the human alphanumerical system, the instructions for how to build the device and other information about humanity is written in terms of universal constants, such as the lowest energy state of a hydrogen atom. These records may maintain humanity’s legacy beyond the destruction of Earth.

 

 

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch

Giphy

Last Tuesday, SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon Heavy rocket. Excluding the Saturn 5 rocket, this is the most powerful rocket system ever developed.  The goal of the launch was test the Falcon Heavy’s ability to deliver a payload to orbit and land safely to earth.

Then rocket launch commenced at 2:45 PM CST on Tuesday, March 6th in Cape Canaveral. After delivering the main stage and payload to the upper atmosphere, the two boaster stages detached and landed safely in Cape Canaveral. The core stage delivered the payload to the edge of space and attempted to land itself on a drone ship on the ocean. Unfortunately, two engines on the core stage failed and the core stage crashed on the drone ship. The payload then orbited the earth, firing an additional booster stage after half an orbit to change the payload’s trajectory. The original intent of this engine firing was to put the payload on a path to orbit mars, however the engine had fired for slightly too long. This will place the payload on a course around the asteroid belt.

The launch was largely a success, proving the Falcon Heavy’s functionality and reusability. The launch proved to be extremely exiting. Personally, I was on my feet yelling at the screen as I watched the booster stages land.

 

P.S. The payload was a Tesla Roadster

 

A Science Enthusiast

Gravitational Waves

National Public Radio

Up until recently, the only way we have been able to gather information about stars, galaxies, and the universe around us has been through the study of light. However, as of the last few years, the discovery of gravitational waves provides a new method of collecting information about the universe.

Although gravitational waves were first observed recently, they were first theorized a century ago by Einstein.  In essence, gravitational waves are ripples moving through the fabric of space-time. These (observable) ripples are caused by violent gravitational events, such as the merger of two black holes.  Even though such violent events involve massive amounts of energy, the gravitational waves they produce are minuscule.

In order to detect these tiny ripples in space-time, extremely sensitive detectors are needed. These detectors rely upon the spacial contraction that gravitational waves produce. Although a gravitational wave detector may seem like a complicated piece of machinery, it is really quite a simple device. A gravitational wave detector uses a laser to precisely measure a large distance. It then monitors for tiny fluctuation in distance that would indicate a ripple in space-time.

So far, this technology has only been used to confirm events first observed by optical telescopes, but as the field of gravitational wave spectroscopy develops it will surely lead us beyond the scope of optical telescopes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newton: the Father of Modern Physics and Astronomy

Sir Isaac Newton lived from January 4, 1643 to March 31, 1727. He is commonly hailed as the father of classical mechanics and one of the most influential scientists and mathematicians of all time. Beyond developing calculus, which serves as the infrastructure for modern astronomy, he discovered the fundamental laws that govern bodies of terrestrial and astronomical scales. This include the law of universal gravitation, the laws of motion, and the behavior of light. In the mid 17^th century there was an outbreak of the plague in Europe. This contributed to Newton’s reclusive and antisocial nature. Newton’s behavior made him notoriously difficult to work with, leading to many notable feuds with fellow scientists and mathematicians, including physicist Robert Hooke. In 1703, Hooke died. As Newton’s long time rival, Hooke had discovered many principals, such as the inverse square law, that laid the foundation for future astronomers. During this time period, King Charles II rose to power following the beheading of Charles II, restoring the English monarchy.

Through studying the historical context of Newton’s life, I have discovered an insight into the nature of science. Regardless of the politics or misfortunes of the world, science will always progress. Even when suppressed by religious groups, progress is always made, and our understanding of the universe around us will always grow.

 

Earth Measured Relative to the Cosmic Scale

The Universe is an unbelievably vast entity. Earth’s radius is about 6.4*10⁶ meters. In overwhelming contrast to this, the radius of the observable universe is approximately 4.4*10²⁶  meters. That is a difference of 20 orders of magnitude. If the earth’s radius, and the universe as a whole, was scaled down such that the earth was the size of a single proton, the universe would occupy the space of a mid-sized city. It is nearly impossible to comprehend or visualize such scales without losing sight of earthly sizes or distances. This arguably  frames astronomy as the broadest of all fields.  While most areas of study are limited to our tiny speck of a planet, astronomy explores the vast majority of the universe outside of our familiar rock.

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