By Karl Vogel | UNL
When and if American astronauts get close enough to an asteroid to study it, there’s a good chance that a design from a UNL engineering club may influence the building of tools they will use to collect samples.
The UNL Air and Space Research team, comprised of five engineering students, took part in a design challenge to develop a hand-held device that would allow astronauts to take small samples from the surface of an asteroid during a space walk while battling against up to 1G of force.
The UNL team, one of 18 from colleges around the country that took part in the challenge, didn’t get started on the project until shortly after Winter Break last year. Having only a small team made for a difficult period of preparation, with more people actively involved throughout the process.
Despite all the obstacles, club president Blake Stewart said the UNL team produced a relatively simple device that captured the attention of NASA engineers and astronauts. The tool, which has a spring in the handle and collection cups on the other end of the arms, operates much like scissors – closing when a hand closes the handle and opening when the hand opens.
Read More:
http://engineering.unl.edu/air-and-space-research-team-makes-impact-nasa-challenge/