High-Level Project Summary
Initially, when choosing a challenge we searched to potentially develop a project that could be reproducible, evaluated and improved. As a team, we aspired to develop our own idea of how the James Webb Space Telescope should be represented in origami and be exhibited to the world. Origami is the art of paper folding without cutting, pasting or marking the paper; therefore, we decided to honor the concept as much as possible by following those principles. As we aimed to develop our very own origami pattern that would help us mimic the mechanical functionality of the primary mirror of the telescope. We agreed upon creating a design that relied on a singular module or node that would join onto
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Our project is a representation of the James Webb Space Primary Mirror that can fold itself and reduce its volume to be able to fit inside a rocket at launch.
The Origami Design we invented works through the assembling of 2 types of hexagons that we designed and named “Ninja Stars” and “Bases”. These two classes of hexagons may form a well thought singular mirror architecture that allows us to receive and grant connections to the remaining mirrors providing them with stability and steady junction.
The benefits of our solution are that the materials are extremely cheap or free. While in our model we utilized recycled papers from books, notebooks, and magazines, origami, and satellite enthusiasts are able to use decorative paper that can help give the James Webb Space Telescope its own and unique aesthetic.
Our main objective as a team is to create a really simple design that does not need either a big budget or prior experience in the art of origami. The design was aimed to be both instructive and simple in such a manner that anyone with the desire to create their very own James Webb Space Project can fulfill it. In our project, we likewise invite everyone to create their own origami patterns to construct anything they would wish for.
We utilized Inkscape, a vector drawing software, to design the core piece of our model and create visual aid while folding our own specific model. While creating our video footage we used iMovie, a Video Editing Application on macOS, to compile the brief videos
Space Agency Data
During the time we did researches for our project, we consulted all resources from our challenge but used the information of the following three resources:
The first resource that we consulted and used was the “James Webb Space Telescope Launch and deployment” video from Northrop Grumman's YouTube channel. We deeply and thoroughly analyzed the information to understand how the telescope deploys itself and what is the role of each part of the telescope.
The second resource we utilized was NASA’s web page dedicated solely to the James Webb Space Telescope. We used key facts, featured images, and about sections to complement the knowledge from our previous resources. These resources synthesized the purposes, objectives, and expectations scientists have on this telescope.
tercer link,
The third and final main resource we used was the Featured page of the JWST webpage where we observed, learned, and analyzed the different projects people around the world have achieved in the branch of art and have a good idea on how to achieve such an attractive and fresh solution for our challenge.
Hackathon Journey
Our experience in this Hackathon was a wild ride. As two of us are freshman college students, we were kind of hesitant on whether to choose a really complex challenge or a Youth-friendly challenge; however, even though we felt we were not ready to tackle a "bigger" challenge we still went with a Youth-friendly challenge to be able to participate and get out of the comfort zone by learning origami for the first time. It was definitely a fun experience to challenge yourself right out of the gate when you decide to learn a new skill. Learning origami has really stimulated our spatial reasoning, problem-solving and creative thinking since designing an original design without any knowledge at all can be quite rough but rather fun in the end.
We as Salvadorean feel like our public education is on a downwards trend. Many Salvadoreans do not go to college since it is often not practical nor worth spending such a high budget for education when unemployment fills every corner of the country. We as a group wanted to focus on encouraging people of all ages to learn a new hobby, skill, or meditation method while also learning about something as magisterial as the James Webb Space Telescope through the art of origami.
During the development of our project, we had countless amounts of setbacks such as a lack of materials or tools and plenty of failed designs for our project. Challenges were around every corner, however, we managed to pull through by using recycled materials, brainstorming for new ideas, and meditation to keep good morale.
In the end, we would like to thank God, our parents, and our family since they were there during all the stages of the project.
References
The Learning Network. (2021). Origami in Space Engineering: Rediscovering the Meaning of Discovery. Retrieved Monday, September 27, 2021. From The New York Times: Origami in Space Engineering: Rediscovering the Meaning of Discovery
Yoshizawa–Randlett system. (2021). Retrieved Tuesday, September 27, 2021. From WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshizawa–Randlett_system
Inkscape (Vector Drawing Software).
iMovie (Video Editing Application).
Tags
#JWST #Origami #Art #New #Easy #Design #Challenge #NASA #SpaceApps #Hackathon #Art&Science #Telescope #SanSalvador #Innovation #Mirrors #Stars
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.