Student engineers to present tool-cart redesign to NASA

Bulky gloves and pressurized suits could make it challenging for astronauts to maneuver a tool cart on the moon.

Enter a team of six University of Texas at Dallas engineering students who aim to make the job easier and safer by redesigning the cart’s handle for possible use in a future NASA lunar mission.

Team Laika was selected to advance and present its prototype at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on June 1-3 as part of the space agency’s Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams project. The UT Dallas team’s name honors Laika, a Soviet dog who was the first living creature to orbit the Earth in 1957.

The students will join teams from 12 other U.S. universities that were invited to present designs to NASA for one of two projects: the tool-cart handle and a device to stow tools.

“The astronauts are going to be doing extravehicular activities on the surface of the moon for roughly eight hours a day. They will use a tool cart while they collect samples,” said mechanical engineering senior Nat Sullivan, team lead. “That’s where we come in. The handle is not ergonomic, so we’re redesigning it.”

The tool-cart handle must be adjustable and able to withstand lunar dust, which sticks to objects and could jam mechanical parts. Team Laika’s design, inspired by a design called a dog clutch, is made of a few different aluminum alloys and steel and includes 3D-printed parts.

The team will test its prototype in the simulated microgravity environment of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a 6.2 million-gallon indoor pool where astronauts train in preparation for space missions. Professional divers will test the tool, with students directing the divers from a control room.

“Ever since I was little, I dreamed of doing something to help people get to space,” Sullivan said. “I’ve been wide-eyed this entire time getting to communicate with NASA and sit in on their meetings. It’s very exciting.”

The students earn class credits for their work through an Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science program designed for experiential learning. The course, Research, Inquiry, Design Experience, offers opportunities for students to work with teams on a range of supervised projects.

“It’s just superexciting to get to apply skills I’ve learned in school both here and previously in a very real-world application,” said mechanical engineering junior Ben Hudson, the team’s outreach officer.

John Phelan, a computer engineering senior and the team’s treasurer, said he is thankful for the opportunity.

“It’s been a lot of fun getting to work with this team, getting to know this team and going through the design process from scratch to having a bare minimum prototype that can be used in the real world,” Phelan said.

Safety is a key part of the project. The handle must be designed to prevent the risk of an astronaut’s suit being ripped or punctured.

“We have to analyze every component of the system and address any possible concerns, determine how critical they are and how they might jeopardize the mission,” said mechanical engineering junior David von Paumgartten, the team’s testing and safety lead. “These are real lives that are in the hands of our equipment, so we’re going to make sure that it’s safe.”

Team Laika is the fourth UT Dallas team in the past four years to be selected to present its project to NASA as part of the challenge. The team joins others from top public universities including Clemson University, Purdue University and the University of California, Berkeley.

“UT Dallas is carrying on a tradition of success,” said Dr. Joshua Summers, professor of mechanical engineering and interim associate dean for undergraduate studies in the Jonsson School. “It is a pure joy working with the students, seeing them grow and develop, learning from each other and the challenges presented along the way. It is these challenges that truly help students learn the mindset and skills necessary to succeed in life, school and industry.”

Team Laika received a grant from the Texas Space Grant Consortium, a UT Austin-based organization of more than 50 institutions, including UT Dallas, dedicated to supporting education, outreach and space-related research in the state. The team presented its design on April 13 at the consortium’s design competition in Houston. Over the next several weeks, students will finalize their prototype and presentation for NASA.

“To be selected to present our project at the Johnson Space Center was really cool,” said mechanical engineering junior Adisan Hammel, computer-aided design lead on the project. “I can’t wait to actually go to NASA with this group and test our prototype and see the mechanism come to life.”

NASA Project ‘A Real Dream Come True’

The idea of working on a NASA project seemed out of reach to David von Paumgartten and Jakob Aleman as young boys.

“This is a real dream come true,” said Aleman, a first-generation college student at The University of Texas at Dallas. “As a kid, I never would have thought I’d be doing this. I’ve been in awe.”

The mechanical engineering juniors are part of Team Laika, which was selected to present a design for a new tool-cart handle for astronauts as part of NASA’s Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams project.

“For young Latino boys where Jakob and I are from, it’s hard to imagine being in a position like this,” von Paumgartten said. “It’s been very empowering for our brothers and sisters to look to us and see that we, too, can make it. It’s meant the world to us.”

Both students grew up in low-income, single-parent households and had little exposure to engineering growing up. Aleman, Team Laika’s manufacturing lead, said he was inspired by Legos and robotics camps he participated in when he was younger thanks to financial assistance.

“We learned about 3D printers, circuits and basic robotics,” Aleman said. “Ever since then, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

Von Paumgartten’s high school in Buda, Texas, near Austin, did not have a robotics club, so he started one.

“We can both attest to how difficult life becomes when your opportunities and limitations stretch each other thin,” von Paumgartten said. “Without education or guidance about what you can do, it is beyond difficult to try to imagine what else might be out there.”

As part of their NASA project, the team is working on outreach to educate the community about the work. That includes speaking engagements on campus and at a community event on May 29 in Buda. Over the winter break, von Paumgartten visited his high school to share his experience with students.

“When you don’t have people showing you what you can do, you might be blinded by making the assumption that, since others like you could not, you cannot either,” he said. “This experience might be what makes the difference in terms of new possibilities for Jakob and me and for Latinos across our communities.”