Liquid Lens Progress Update

The University of Arizona chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (UASEDS) formed a team of five individuals to submit a proposal for the Space Grant sponsored “Grant Us Space” program. This program is within NASA's Reduced Gravity program. Our proposal focused on testing a liquid lens in a microgravity environment. Liquid lenses can be used for a variety of purposes in areas where fast lens actuation is necessary, or where a less mechanical-intensive structure is desired. In mid-March, our proposal was selected, and we have been working steadily ever since.

During the month of April, our team focused on finalizing a design and determining the proper structure to hold our experiment. After speaking with Dr. Su Xu from the University of Central Florida (an individual who has published many papers on the subject), it was determined that the best liquid lens design for our purposes involved a two-fluid chamber with ferrofluid actuation. Dr. Xu published a paper with a similar design. In this design, the liquid lens aperture is 4 mm to avoid dealing with the effect of gravity. Since gravity is our primary concern, we decided to scale up this lens structure to a 15-25 mm aperture.

Just this past week, Kevin, Nathan, and Kyle spent some time in the machine shop constructing a liquid lens structure (picture below). The structure, when completed, will hold two fluids in the center where the differing diameters represent the area were the two fluids will go. The diagonal chamber will hold the ferrofluid and provide the actuation, changing the pressure in one chamber, creating a “lens” at the fluid-fluid interface.

 

This structure allows for an aperture as large as 19 mm. With the generous material donation from Dr. Xu from UCF, we should have all the materials we need to finish this lens structure and test its performance by early next week.

We are getting into finals week here at the University of Arizona, but progress will continue on validating the liquid lens structure and ensuring the SCOTS test will work as expected. The experiment’s structure and electronics are also another top priority. More information on these components will follow.

Posted by Kyle Stephens

Outreach Event - Liberty High School

For our first outreach event, the UASEDS Microgravity team visited Liberty High School in Peoria, Arizona on April 21, 2011. The plan was to visit a science classroom, give a presentation, and facilitate a few activities for three classes of about 25 students each.

The presentation given was entitled "Why Space?" By focusing on past, present, and future NASA exploration, the presentation makes claims for why people should care about space and how NASA benefits our everyday lives. We also discussed our microgravity project to show the students the kinds of opportunities available to them in college. 

Our first activity focused on stressing the importance of communication within teams. We had the students pair up. One student was given a space-related item written down on a card. That student was required to have their teammate draw that item only using directional instructions and shapes (left/ right, top/ bottom, circle, square, etc). Most of the students were able to complete the activity rather successfully, but some cases demonstrated some miscommunications. We discussed the outcomes with each class and emphasized the importance of clear and concise communication when working in groups.

Our  second activity was called "Engineering Management." This activity involved giving groups of 5-7 students a bag of materials like wood shims, metal brackets, nuts & bolts, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, and clothespins. Using these materials, the students were instructed to begin by making a structure capable of supporting a three pound weight about the size of a fist. Throughout the activity, certain engineering-related events occured: the power went out (shutting off the class room lights), certain team members fell ill (individual not able to help the team for five minutes), product recalls occurred (students had to give up certain items), and communications systems broke down (students had to work in silence). As a final twist, with ten minutes remaining, the students were told that their "bosses" changed their mind - instead of building a structure to support a weight, they wanted the tallest tower to be built.

This activity teaches students what it is like to work in an engineering environment, such as NASA, although maybe on an extreme scale. Students learned the importance of being flexible and understanding that things may not always go as planned. All the students we worked with appeared to enjoy the activity and took it seriously. 

Through this outreach event, we were able to reach out to about 80 students and teach them the importance of space exploration and the engineering behind it all. We plan to participate in more activities such as this one in the future.

 You can view our "Why Space?" presentation below: