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