Wyoming engineering students Abigail Hobbs, Garrett Post, Isaac Siurek, Nicholas Shields, Daniel Wisler, Tyler Brewer, and Austen Williamson, also known as the UW Space Rangers, advance to Phase II of NASA’s 2023 Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (NExT).
NASA’s 2023 Micro-g NExT engineering design challenge is a NASA-sponsored challenge where teams of undergraduate students from around the nation design and manufacture a solution to real-world engineering problems relating to NASA and space exploration.
If selected for Phase II, the student teams get to test their device in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, Texas.
The 2022-2023 challenges include a Spacesuit Cooling System, an Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs) Zip Tie Installer, an Autonomous Surface Vehicle for Emergency Response (SAVER), and an EVA Dust-Tolerant Handle Extension Mechanism.
These tools are designed to tackle challenges related to Astronaut Training, the International Space Station (ISS), future Orion Crew Safety, and Lunar Surface Operations.
“Each member of the UW Space Ranger’s team chose this project through our mutual Systems Design course at the University of Wyoming. By the time projects were finalized, we had about a month to submit our Proposal for NASA to advance to Phase II,” Abigail Hobbs said,
“We immediately met with our faculty advisor to further discuss the challenge and begin the brainstorming phase.”
The zip tie device the Space Rangers created is called the Lunar Lasso. The purpose of this device is to install zip ties on and around the International Space Station (ISS) during EVAs.
Currently, astronauts use giant cable ties to secure items together during spacewalks, which can be fatiguing and time-consuming for an astronaut in a bulky EVA suit. The Lunar Lasso offers a primarily one-handed, less fatiguing, and more efficient means of securing items together in space.
“The tool took approximately 100 or so design hours, with more to come. 3D printing all the parts took a few days since some parts are rather large, and prints of that size take a lot of time,” Nicholas Shields said,
“The most challenging part was meeting the deadlines for design milestones for NASA that were due months before those needed for the senior design class.”
The first Lunar Lasso prototype took four months from concept to manufacture. This prototype has provided valuable insight into what needs refinement and iteration before the May deadline for Phase II.
For Phase II of the challenge, the team will develop the Lunar Lasso even further. As of Phase I, the Lunar Lasso was more of a concept. For Phase II of the challenge, the team will manufacture, test, and iterate the design until it works as intended.
“I am looking forward to the challenge of testing and iteration. With a tool as complex as the Lunar Lasso, running into issues is all but guaranteed,” Garret Post said. “It will be fun to work with my team to engineer solutions to these issues and eventually make an innovative and functional product!”
In June, the design team will be heading to Houston, Texas, to test the Lunar Lasso device in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab and showcase what they have been working on for months. If they pass Phase II, the Lunar Lasso may travel to the International Space Station and be used for future space exploration.
