Since 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) mission has been to “reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind.” A group of engineering students at Grand Valley State University are also reaching for new heights by challenging themselves to design a new device for NASA and, ultimately, humankind. 

NASA’s Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (Micro-g NExT) is a nationwide project that requires undergraduate students to design, build and test a device that addresses a current space exploration challenge. 

For the past three years, GVSU engineering students have undertaken this task to create a new, innovative space tool. This year, seven students have been working on their design in hopes of being one of the three teams chosen to fly to the NASA headquarters in Houston to test their prototype. 

The GVSU team has risen to the challenge of designing a mini-arm end effector, which is essentially a tool that will be attached to the end of a robot arm. This design will be used to explore underneath the ice-covered surfaces of moons such as Europa and Enceladus, and must be able to grasp ice crystals. Since the robot will be exploring the “Ocean Worlds” of space, the students are required to design a tool that can operate underwater and sample surrounding water and ice-structures. 

“The goal of the project is to design a small, self-contained robotic manipulator that will be attached to an articulated mechanical arm,” said Douglas Furton, a GVSU physics professor and the faculty adviser of the team. “The arm has already been designed and built by NASA. The manipulator, or ‘effector’ as it has been called, proposed by the Project: Europa team, will be able to pick up and handle delicate ice cores and other objects in a relatively extreme environment: underwater on distant solar-system planets and moons.”

What sets the design of the GVSU engineers apart from other college teams is that they have aimed to incorporate the least amount of moving parts as possible to decrease the chances of a malfunction during space exploration. The mindset of this team was to design a simple, robust and durable tool. With this unique perspective, the seven students hope to be one of the teams chosen to test their prototype in the laboratories of the renowned NASA Headquarters. 

“I am most excited about having the opportunity to travel to NASA headquarters in Houston,” said Steven Lindsay, a member of the GVSU team. “I’m excited to be able to test our design in NASA’s neutral buoyancy lab and compete alongside other university teams. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to explore and use NASA’s top tier engineering facility.”

When brainstorming design ideas, all students were required to create their own plan and share it with the other members. The design that was chosen was the result of a combination of the strengths of the ideas from each member. This process could have proven to be much more difficult had these students not been prepared by their studies at GVSU. 

“This project is a perfect opportunity to apply learned academic concepts to the real-world designing process,” said Becca Jakob, student member of the GVSU team. “It is exciting to be able to have the knowledge to design and build a device that NASA will use within the exploration of ice-covered planets such as Europa and Enceladus.”

The GVSU team has sent their design proposal to NASA and is currently awaiting a response to see if they will be chosen to test their prototype at NASA’s engineering facility.