NV Space Grant Highlight
Infrastructure for SPACE: Nevada’s youth engineering the future of NASA
PI: Claire Parker (Desert Research Institute)
Overview:
Researchers collecting snow samples
The goal of the Student Partnerships and Collaboration for Engineering (SPACE) program is to engage diverse perspectives and cultivate student innovation to develop technologies needed to advance space exploration and environmental research. The SPACE program addresses the need for a research-academic innovation pipeline by engaging undergraduate students to engineer mechanisms for remote payload collection and delivery systems for UASs used in environmental research.
DRI’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences Weather Modification group (WxMOD) has been researching the impacts of cloud seeding on critical watersheds for decades. A key part of this research is to collect snow samples from target areas to show if the cloud seeding was successful. Oftentimes snow samples need to be collected from avalanche prone areas. WxMOD researchers presented students with the context and parameters needed for a payload collection and delivery system for custom sample tubes needed for snow collection in remote locations. A team of college students successfully designed, built, and tested the ROSE (Remote Operated Sample Extraction) prototype. Engineers from Click Bond, a local industry partner, met with the team to brainstorm design ideas and provide insight into prototype development in an industry setting. Students learned to use software for technical design, machinery for fabrication, and iterations for design improvement.
The culminating experience for the ROSE design team was testing the prototype in the field with the WxMOD researchers. Before taking ROSE to remote locations, the prototype was tested on Peavine Mountain in Reno, Nevada. Multiple snow samples were collected for analysis in the Ultra-Trace laboratory.
NASA Content and Resources Used:
This project was supported by the Research Infrastructure award from the Research Infrastructure Development award from Nevada NASA EPSCoR. The NASA Strategy for STEM Engagement framework was used during training development.
Project Impact:
New proposals awarded: 1
Students impacted: 73
Faculty engagement: 6
This work was supported by the Nevada NASA Space Grant [Award # 80NSSC20M0043].