Hi and welcome back to the XSAS blog!
We just held our second outreach event last weekend and it was hosted by the structures team. We wanted to teach the students about the importance of structures in engineering and how they could apply these concepts in building their own rover. They also had a fun activity where they could build and modify their own paper gliders to see how they could fly the best.
The students were split up into teams and with the help of XSAS team members, came up with structural designs for their rover. They had to figure out a way to protect and attach a camera to the rover chassis, as well as mount some batteries and a radio transceiver. The teams drew out their plans and held miniature design reviews and then were given the 'OK' to collect materials and start building! They had to creatively use the materials supplied (plastic bags, cardboard, balsa wood, paper cups, tape, and glue).
As for XSAS, we have done some significant building ourselves. All of the parts for our first prototype are nearly finished and we are beginning assembly. We have also begun testing of the NiChrome/Dyneema burn system that we will use to release XSAS during microgravity testing.
Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more updates on XSAS and our outreach program!
Andrew Chou
Structures and Payload Team Member
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