Egg Testing by Hannah Cullen

Egg Testing by Hannah Cullen

Monday 2^nd July:

History of space flight and testing the egg astronaut.

Phil Rowles (a space engineer) who works for an aerospace in Claverham delivered a talk on the history of space flight. He explained that when men were first on the moon it was 66 years after the first powered flight. This is an example of just how quickly technology can evolve with the catalyst of war and the intention to have better technology than the opposition and so, the space race began.

He then went on to explore each of the Apollo Missions. We learned that most of which were successful with the exceptions of Apollo 1- due to a fire during the countdown test one month before launch date- and Apollo 18, 19 and 20 which were all aborted due to budgetary constraints.

Finally, the engineer informed us of the conditions and astronaut will encounter on a day-to-day basis on the moon. For example, they will face extremes of temperate (over 100°C and may drop to as low as -250° ), extremely low pressure and no gravity. Lucky though, astronauts have to wear a space suit (or more formally known as an Extravehicular Mobility Unit.). Although the suit is able to maximise safety, space engineers are always trying to improve and develop ideas to aid men on the moon.

After lunch we were set a task to design a way to transport an egg (acting as the astronaut) back down to earth after its fired into the air by our rocket. We split into pairs and began to brainstorm ideas. Each group fed their ideas back to the class and we had an array of different possibilities. We thought of ways to reduce the speed at which it came back down- a parachute or a gyrocopter and we thought of ways to cushion the egg and reduce the impact- foam, polystyrene, bubble wrap,blanket, a trampoline, water and springs. We whittled these ideas down and decided to test foam, bubble wrap and springs.

The group was then split into 3 teams and each given an idea to make and test. The egg was then dropped from 1m, 2ms and then 3ms (only if it didnt crack after each stage). To the groups surprise the spring mechanism proved to be the most durable design. It consisted of a long cardboard tube with a wooden stick going through it near the top. A spring was then suspended and attached was a balloon with the egg inside. It survived each height drop (unlike the foam that only last 1m and 2ms and the bubble wrap that cracked both times at 2ms).

The final task of the day was to build a parachute and a gyrocopter. The parachute constructing group decided to assemble three parachutes and attach these to the top of the tube. The parachutes were made out of bubble wrap and string. The other group decided to make a gyrocopter with three blades that had a pull out mechanism. This was operated by a spring inside the tube that as it retracted, the hinges attached to each blade rotated and the blades folded out.

Finally we went to the top of our school and dropped both of our designs. The parachute worked successfully and slowly floated to the ground (reducing the rate of impact). Our gyrocopter was also successful and rotated in the air (increasing the stability of our rocket and reducing the rate of impact.) it had a soft landing and landed vertically with little movement.

Through out the course of the day, most of our designs were successful and will aid us in the final production of our rocket.

Egg Testing by Hannah Cullen