High-Level Project Summary
We created a space robot which can clear the space debris. It will attracts debris towards itself (using a magnet), collect it and eventually bringing it back on Earth. It's is efficient in collecting all metallic debris. It is important and is essential as the debris around the Earth grows in population. Clearing the space is its priority.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Our project 'Space Egg' is a robotic spacecraft which will catch all metallic debris in the Space. It does so with the help of its magnets that will attract the debris. Once the debris gets closer to the Space Egg, it will break through the first layer of the shield i.e. Whipple Bumper shield. After it enters the interior side of the shield the main magnet shuts off and the secondary magnet is turned on. The secondary magnet then attracts the debris towards itself, directing the debris to the storage compartment inside. The sensors will detect the debris from afar and maneuver itself to the correct position to avoid max damage.
Once the storage is full of debris and the shield goes through enough damage, the Space Egg then returns to the Earth. Then, the debris can be recycled, reused or researched on.
The internal structure is made of Fibre Reinforced Plastic, the outer layer is made up of aluminum and the whipple bumper shield. We also use solar panels, geopositional sensors, tracking sensors and temperature sensors (for sensing/tracking the debris around the Space Egg) and thrusters (to maneuver).
As we all know, the Space is filled with approximately 128 millions small debris particles, most of which is parts of other spacecrafts, shuttles, etc. If we don't take actions on this problem now, we curious humans can be confined within our planet, future projects can be at risk of damage too. Hence, We hope to clean that debris using Space Egg. And it also has additional benefits of recycling the metal debris.
Space Agency Data
We referred to the information provided by Nasa as well as other open sources such as Wikipedia etc. We used this information in developing our project, from what material the spacecraft should be to the sensors. We learned about how the risk to ISS comes from orbital debris between 1 mm to 1cm. meaning there is a higher number of small debris than large debris, the risk to the U.S. modules
is actually driven by orbital debris in the 1 cm–2 cm range. From this, we decided we want our Space Egg to maneuver just like ISS, to avoid severe damage and catch the debris. We also could get a better understanding of the size of the debris present in the Space.
We also gathered information on Fibre Reinforced Plastic which we use in the inner structure of the spacecraft and which materials to use.
From all the references mentioned we learned how we want to create our spacecraft to be.
Hackathon Journey
Our team had a really good time discussing, planning for this project. Every question that we had or little bumps here and there, we solved it together. In times like these, we could collaborate and make a new product from our imaginations. With group effort we made our vision into a model.
Our team chose this challenge as we had already heard about Space debris being a problem and Nasa trying to find a solution. And when we heard about this challenge we already had this topic in our mind. We had also watched other information videos on this topic.
We only wanted to see a possible way to solve the debris problem. And we did a lot of brainstorming sessions. We Googled information, went through the material provided by Nasa, watched a lot of videos explaining different parts of this project. And then in the end made Space Egg.
The setbacks we faced as a team were lack of information of this challenge/topic. We had to educate ourselves from watching and reading a lot of information about how spacecrafts work, how or what they do, the environment outside, what type of materials do we use? What are the different types of shields we could use? In short, this journey was filled with learning new things. But we believed in our team work and work through it all.
First of all, we would like to thank all our team members for working so hard, day and night without getting tired. Our guide and mentor for guiding us through all the stages. Nasa and the event organizers for organizing this event and providing us with information, and last but the least, our family for putting up us being very very busy with our project and cheering us on.
References
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillianscudder/2016/01/06/astroquizzical-space-debris/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat
(August 2020 & February 2021)
https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/quarterly-news/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibre-reinforced_plastic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris
https://youtu.be/NY8Rv6PaXVI
https://youtu.be/Ez609kf49y8
Tags
#SpaceApps #Hackathon #SpaceEgg #SpaceDebris #SpaceSatelliteAndEquipementForCollectingMaterialInSpace
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.