Yesterday's INSPIRE Live Chat was presented by students who participated in the RealWorld-InWorld Design Challenge. 46 participants, including the RW-IW project manager Sharon Bowers, listened as many student teams shared their projects via the Elluminate chat room. Here is what some of the teams did:
Nuances' (the team name) task was to create a new shield design. Using RWIW Active Worlds software, we created a project space to house all of our ideas, models both physical and virtual, as well as our ideas, pictures, videos, and other brainstorms. Using our “umbrella” concept, we were able to design a significantly different JWST from what we expect to see in 2013-2015.
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Lagrangian Masters: In the first phase of the challenge, we collaborated using Skype. We chose to redesign the JWST's sunshield because we found it to be an interesting problem to solve. Our sun shield is circular in design and consists of three layers made up of gold foil, self-healing material, and RXF 1, with the gold foil furthest away from the primary mirror and the RXF 1 closest to the primary mirror. The sun shield will be supported by the carbon fiber/cyanate-ester resin system. The Sunshield will fold together much like an umbrella, and the material will fold along pre-made fold-lines. A motor in the central module of the telescope (the part underneath facing the sun) would unfold the sunshield once the telescope was in orbit. The telescope would be rotated upwards during the launch, and would be protected from damage by the sunshield.
The second phase of the challenge takes place in the NIA Universe. Each team is paired with two college leaders and a techsquad specialist. We used the 3D modeling software Google Sketchup to create a model of our sunshield and imported it to Accutrans in order to to export it in a format compatible with the NIA Universe (.rwx), and then uploaded it to our team space. We were then given the Mystery Problem, which asked teams to design backup systems for the part of the JWST the team redesigned. We added an emergency deployment system for the sunshield that utilizes the reaction between sodium azide (NaN3) and potassium nitrate (KNO3) to produce nitrogen gas (N2) as a means to force the sunshield to open. In addition, we included a nanotech repair system to repair holes in the sunshield, and a locking mechanism to ensure the sunshield did not prematurely deploy. Once we finished the design process, we created 3D models for these backup systems and added them to our team space.
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Next generation Explorers: We chose to tackle the mirror problem, (design the mirror to fit into a space smaller than the diameter of it) and came up with a 3 fold mechanism. this allows room on either side for protective material to be placed/ sunshield to be positioned. For the "mystery problem" we created large protective foam pads to cover the mirror, as well as packaging blocks to add extra protection.
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Aerodynamic Interstellars: Our project consists of a multi-layered shield built of carbon fiber, nylon, and metal that serves all requirements of the telescope, in addition to a hydraulic piston powering an arm that could be used to protect the telescope from a unexpectedly large obstacle, such as a stray meteor.The final rankings will be out soon. I'll update with the names of winning INSPIRE teams.
Next week, barring a government shut-down, our presenter will be Dr. Liz Warren from the Johnson Space Center. Watch this blog for more information.
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