Launch to New Heights

Seattle, WA | Let It Go (Without A Bang)

Launch To New Heights

High-Level Project Summary

Our project tackles the problem of creating a reusable mechanism to reliably separate parts in space while reducing jerk as much as possible. We achieve this by using an electromagnetic coil to smoothly move a permanent magnet in a hydraulic piston assembly, which acts as a force multiplier that is able to hold the preload in place. Under ideal conditions, our design could apply a force of up to 15990N (force multiplier of 1599x, electromagnet force of 10N, using less than 20W) to hold the preload in place, all while staying under 2cm wide and 15cm long. Our design is also very modifiable, with simple equations built into the solidworks files to change the parameters of the part/assembly.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19YWbfOczvajPQnRyHhtCLz8vljuUOxoB/view?usp=sharing

Link to Final Project

https://nasaspaceappscompe.wixsite.com/launchingtonewheight

Detailed Project Description

Our project is meant to improve mechanism release and decrease sudden acceleration and jerk using electromagnetism & hydraulic force multiplication. It's extremely simple, cost efficient, and effective! We hope that we can build off of this project and create improved versions with new and upcoming technologies! With this project, we hoped to achieve a comfortable and economically beneficial way to smooth out our mechanism release process.

Here's a quick video on the physical layout of our project:

https://youtu.be/h0p00UvmebA

Using a piston inner radius of 0.5mm, and an outer radius of 2cm, we can achieve an extremely high force multiplier of 1599x! By applying just a 10N force to that, we can get max ~16kN of force applied opposing the preload! Best of all, this force is easily alterable based on the current flowing through the coil!

For more detailed project info, please refer to the github:

https://github.com/Suputra/SpaceApps2021

What softwares/coding languages we used:

The CAD model for the mechanical design was done using solidworks
For the Simulation software, we used javascript and p5.js to make the GUI and the entire simulation. This simulation can be run on the web and you can even write your own custom to test and see how our device works under different scenarios.

Space Agency Data

The designs and movements of the Launch Restraints were inspired by the paper on the design, development, and testing of GMI Launch locks, which can be found on the challenge's resources page. The IBS Launch Restraints (IBS LR) gave us a better understanding of how we could smoothen the release so it doesn’t rely on jerks. Furthermore, the project's size constraints provided a better frame of reference for the dimensions of our product. We also got a better understanding of how our device would be used, as well as the scales of dimensions of these devices and the forces applied on them.

Hackathon Journey

We would describe our Space Apps experience as a wild ride! Throughout our challenge we were constantly challenged but at the same time we were also having fun and learning from each other since we all have a diverse set of skills -- web development, mechanical background. Due to this we gained a better understanding of their disciplines and a greater appreciation for them. Another thing is that we learned how to create multiple simulations and CAD models within a short time period along with how hydraulic fluids work. In order to complete our challenge we used multiple platforms to communicate such as Discord, GroupMe, and Zoom. We used these platforms in order to multitask and split into three groups without having to disturb and talk over one another but at the same time still being able to communicate with one another. We had the 3 groups for website and presentation design, simulation design, as well as mechanical design. One of the main setbacks that we had was the calculations for the actual device. In order to solve the calculations we followed an example that one of our mentors gave us because it was similar to our problem and the numbers are easily changeable. On that note we would like to thank the mentors for their help because they helped us with many problems that we came across as well as allowed us to do a practice presentation and gave feedback on how we can improve our presentation to make it more attention-grabbing and impactful. In the future, we would love to keep working on this concept - we think it has a lot of potential due to its power, flexibility, and reusability!