Although not directly related to our project, we would just like to let everyone know that today, Wednesday October 28th, NASA completed a successful test launch of the new ARES-I launch vehicle.

This unmanned test-flight checked all the onboard flight systems as well as the separation system from the 1st stage- Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) and the 2nd- upper stage of the rocket (which was a dummy for this flight.)

The link below will allow you to watch the short video of the test-flight.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html#

Another week, another update

Yesterday marked the end of the Level II assignments for TSGC. We submitted our midterm report, power point presentation, and our patch design.

Included in our midterm report were pictures of our urethane drum concept generated in AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor. They're posted above.

We have also been in contact with Dr. Srinivasan (Lamar University's materials science professor and consultant for materials for all Senior Design projects) about our urethane drum concept, and he approves of our material choice. However, he suggested that we research how urethane deterioration is affected by low pressure environments. As soon as we have this information, we'll post it, and keep everyone informed.

This week, we are attempting to contact Allen Bradley with regards to controls for the system. We're compiling a list of our requirements now, and that list will be soon be sent to them, and they should be able to provide us with all the extra information (and hopefully supplies) that we need.

Thanks for keeping up with us, stay tuned for more.

~The Lamar Launderers

Where We Are Now

Okay, long story short: we've been through quite a few ideas about the design of our washing machine and have picked a favorite.

Right now, when astronauts are done with their clothes in space, they throw them out the airlock and let them burn up in the atmosphere. Obviously, this isn't an ideal way of dealing with soiled clothes, so a washing machine is necessary. That's where we come in.

One man decided to wash his shorts by putting them in a bag with soap and water and massaging the bag. We thought we might take this idea to the next level.

Basically, what we want to do is take away the solid metal drum of a regular horizontal axis washing machine and replace it with a flexible tub. Clothing, water and detergant will fill the tub completely and actuator arms will be driven by a customized ring-cam mechanism to massage the tub, creating the agitation needed to get the clothes clean. At the end of the cycle, a press will be applied to the tub and large amounts of water will be reclaimed.

That's a quick look into our chosen design. We've run this idea as well as all our other ones against each specified criteria, creating a Pugh Chart or decision matrix (included in our midterm report), and it looks like this idea is our best bet.

Anyway, the showcase is only four short weeks away and we're looking forward to getting to see everyone's projects and showing ours off as well.

Thanks for your interest,

~The Lamar Launderers

This is our completed patch design. It will be submitted with our midterm report in the next couple weeks.

Sorry for the delay between posts. It's been a busy week.

Alright. Let's see where we left off... What we've done so far. Here goes:

When we first chose this particular TSGC design project, we were intent on saving large amounts of energy in the drying process, as opposed to the washing cycle. Our original hypothesis was to use the free vacuum of space to drop the pressure surrounding the clothes, allowing any water to evaporate and thus leaving the clothes dry. We conducted rudimentary experiments using a Vacuum tube, air conditioner pump, and a paper towel. It seemed that our theory was viable, we just needed to do more research.

We started by contacting the physics department here on campus. After explaining our theory, we were told that the principles sounded right, and further experimentation would be needed. We were then referred to the geology department because they are currently conducting experiments simulating ambient lunar pressures and temperatures. With a solid theory and access to people who knew the types of equipment we should use, we felt it was time to meet with our mentor.

On Friday, September 11th, we took a trip to NASA's Johnson Space Center to meet with Evelynne Orndoff. She and Robert Trevino were able to sit down with us for a solid 2 hours and answered all the questions we had and re-focused our project. We were told that drying the clothes shouldn't be our main concern; we should be focusing on saving power during the wash cycle and reclaiming as much water as possible.

With our questions answered and our focus realigned, we set back to work designing washing machines that would recover as much water as possible. We'll post some pictures of our design sessions and ideas in the next few days.

Stay tuned, more to come...

~The Lamar Launderers