Random Positioning Machine 2.0

University of California, San Diego

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

MAE 156B: Senior Design Project

Project Background

Space exploration has been advancing for years now and with that comes more and more challenges. In the beginning, scientists and researchers didn’t understand the effects of microgravity on people which resulted in astronauts having a difficult time readjusting once they returned to earth’s surface due to muscle loss and weaker bones. Thus, there are many researchers who aim to study the effects of microgravity on not just astronauts but fire, plants, and sintering processes to better understand what happens. 

Unfortunately for humans, space travel is extremely expensive. The good news is that microgravity can be simulated on Earth’s surface with a Random Positioning Machine. By taking the gravity vector that the object experiences and randomly rotating the object in all directions so as to distribute vectors evenly such that they cancel each other out. This way we can effectively simulate a space environment as long as the tangential acceleration is extremely low if not zero. To do this, we attach two rotating frames to a base and place the object in the center, in between the frames.

 Objective

Our project is specifically focusing on what happens to a sintering furnace when it is placed into that microgravity environment. Since weight is a critical factor to a space launch, it becomes a massive problem when multiple single use tools are needed to maintain adequate safety on the ship or space station. Even more important, what happens when a tool is forgotten? With a sintering furnace, tools can be created up in space if the process can be done well enough.

While random positioning machines do exist, very few are big enough to be able to hold the load and size capacity of the sintering furnace or other large systems. This prevents the understanding of how many applications are effected by microgravity.  The RPM 2.0 has a 100 pound and a 30 cubic inch load/ size capacity, making the RPM 2.0 the largest random positioning machine in the United States. 

Our Sponsor

Dr. Maziar Ghazinejad and his team at The Gravity Labs design random positioning machines and a centrifuge in efforts to create a ground analog to study the effects of microgravity and hypergravity.