Wind Tunnel Exploration & More!
Last week was a short week in terms of work. After the four-day weekend for the 4th of July, I only had to work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
My design team and I spent basically all day on Wednesday in the Singularity University iLab, working on 3D printed parts for Dr. Cagle's project. We were able to successfully print a few parts using the FormLabs printer. This particular 3D printer operates using a liquid resin. A platform lowers into a bath of the liquid resin, and a UV light is used to cure the liquid, layer by layer, into the shape that you want to print. I found that the FormLabs printer is very user friendly, and the resolution of the prints is exceptional. The FormLabs printer is an awesome tool that we have access to for Dr. Cagle's project.
On Thursday morning, I went to a lecture about how humans adapt in space. I was expecting the talk to be about how humans psychologically adapt to being in space; after all, it can get awfully lonely up there. I also thought that the speaker might talk about things like bone degradation, loss of muscle mass, and similar physiologically consequences. However, the lecture was not really about any of these things. The speaker mostly talked about motion sickness, and how training that NASA gives to its astronauts can assist them in building a tolerance to motion sickness. I really like the discussion of experimental procedures in the talk, and at the end of the day I did get something out of it.
Later in the day on Thursday, we went back to the iLab to try prototyping a different part for Dr. Cagle's project. For this part, we ended up using one of the four Lulzbot printers in the iLab, rather than the FormLabs printer. The Lulzbot is a more traditional 3D printer that feeds filament into a melting compartment, and then extrudes the material onto the platform. As the material cools and layers on top of itself, it forms your 3D printed object. It took much longer to get a successful print out of the Lulzbot printer, both because of our computerized design and because of the nature of the Lulzbot itself. However, we were able to finally get a successful print that completed early on Friday morning.
We were able to bring all of our prints, both successes and failures, from the FormLabs printer and the Lulzbot printer, to Dr. Cagle at our weekly meeting with her on Friday. She was very impressed with our progress. It surely felt good to give Dr. Cagle something tangible to prove our progress!
This weekend was pretty relaxed compared to the other weekends I've had since arriving here in California. On Friday I went out to dinner in downtown Mountain View with a couple of the other interns. It was a really nice time and I was glad I got to hang out with my friends. Saturday was a really chill day and I basically didn't do anything except watch TV and do some quick research on the computer. But hey, we all need a day to relax sometimes, don't we?
On Sunday, I headed to downtown San Jose with two of the other interns from Smith that are here with me at NASA. We had a picnic lunch in the Plaza de Cesar Chavez park, and then when to the Tech Museum of Innovation. It was really cool! There were a lot of exhibits relating to human health and biomedical engineering, which is actually where I got my start in engineering at Smith. The first ever engineering class that I took at Smith was called Engineering for Everyone: Challenges in Human Health, and I really learned a lot in that class. Even though I did not end up going in the direction of biomedical engineering, the field will always be dear to my heart. I really enjoyed seeing all the biomedical exhibits.
There were also a lot of tech exhibits on the lower floor of The Tech. There were lots of interactive activities where you could see how hackers can get into your computer, and how you can protect yourself against phishing and hackers. There was also a cool wearable technology exhibit, which relates a lot to our project with Dr. Cagle. It was really cool to see some wearables in action.
Finally, we went to one of the IMAX films that was being shown in the IMAX theater that is integrated into The Tech. It was called "Dream Big," and it was about the scientific as well as humanitarian work that engineers do for a living. The film quite literally made me tear up, and it really made me confident in my career choice to become an engineer. I am doing this because I want to help people and keep them safe. It was a really great feeling to see that dream come true for engineers similar to the one I someday hope to become.
We came back from San Jose on Sunday evening, and we got straight back to work on Monday morning. My design team went back to the iLab to perfect the design we were printing on the Lulzbot printer. One of our prototypes is printing on the printer right now, so we can go back in the morning and see if it was successful.
This afternoon, the Smith students were given a tour of the 80x40 wind tunnel on the NASA base. This wind tunnel is the second largest wind tunnel on the NASA Ames campus. (The largest is the 80x120 wind tunnel.) Like its name implies, the test area for the wind tunnel is 80 feet wide and 40 feet tall. We actually got to go inside the test section, which was incredible. See below for photos from inside the 80x40 wind tunnel.
It is time for bed now, but it is back to work tomorrow. We will return to the iLab to check on our latest print, and I will be attending a talk entitled "Satellite Formation-Flying for Future Space Science and Exploration." I am very excited for that.
My design team and I spent basically all day on Wednesday in the Singularity University iLab, working on 3D printed parts for Dr. Cagle's project. We were able to successfully print a few parts using the FormLabs printer. This particular 3D printer operates using a liquid resin. A platform lowers into a bath of the liquid resin, and a UV light is used to cure the liquid, layer by layer, into the shape that you want to print. I found that the FormLabs printer is very user friendly, and the resolution of the prints is exceptional. The FormLabs printer is an awesome tool that we have access to for Dr. Cagle's project.
On Thursday morning, I went to a lecture about how humans adapt in space. I was expecting the talk to be about how humans psychologically adapt to being in space; after all, it can get awfully lonely up there. I also thought that the speaker might talk about things like bone degradation, loss of muscle mass, and similar physiologically consequences. However, the lecture was not really about any of these things. The speaker mostly talked about motion sickness, and how training that NASA gives to its astronauts can assist them in building a tolerance to motion sickness. I really like the discussion of experimental procedures in the talk, and at the end of the day I did get something out of it.
Later in the day on Thursday, we went back to the iLab to try prototyping a different part for Dr. Cagle's project. For this part, we ended up using one of the four Lulzbot printers in the iLab, rather than the FormLabs printer. The Lulzbot is a more traditional 3D printer that feeds filament into a melting compartment, and then extrudes the material onto the platform. As the material cools and layers on top of itself, it forms your 3D printed object. It took much longer to get a successful print out of the Lulzbot printer, both because of our computerized design and because of the nature of the Lulzbot itself. However, we were able to finally get a successful print that completed early on Friday morning.
We were able to bring all of our prints, both successes and failures, from the FormLabs printer and the Lulzbot printer, to Dr. Cagle at our weekly meeting with her on Friday. She was very impressed with our progress. It surely felt good to give Dr. Cagle something tangible to prove our progress!
This weekend was pretty relaxed compared to the other weekends I've had since arriving here in California. On Friday I went out to dinner in downtown Mountain View with a couple of the other interns. It was a really nice time and I was glad I got to hang out with my friends. Saturday was a really chill day and I basically didn't do anything except watch TV and do some quick research on the computer. But hey, we all need a day to relax sometimes, don't we?
On Sunday, I headed to downtown San Jose with two of the other interns from Smith that are here with me at NASA. We had a picnic lunch in the Plaza de Cesar Chavez park, and then when to the Tech Museum of Innovation. It was really cool! There were a lot of exhibits relating to human health and biomedical engineering, which is actually where I got my start in engineering at Smith. The first ever engineering class that I took at Smith was called Engineering for Everyone: Challenges in Human Health, and I really learned a lot in that class. Even though I did not end up going in the direction of biomedical engineering, the field will always be dear to my heart. I really enjoyed seeing all the biomedical exhibits.
There were also a lot of tech exhibits on the lower floor of The Tech. There were lots of interactive activities where you could see how hackers can get into your computer, and how you can protect yourself against phishing and hackers. There was also a cool wearable technology exhibit, which relates a lot to our project with Dr. Cagle. It was really cool to see some wearables in action.
Finally, we went to one of the IMAX films that was being shown in the IMAX theater that is integrated into The Tech. It was called "Dream Big," and it was about the scientific as well as humanitarian work that engineers do for a living. The film quite literally made me tear up, and it really made me confident in my career choice to become an engineer. I am doing this because I want to help people and keep them safe. It was a really great feeling to see that dream come true for engineers similar to the one I someday hope to become.
We came back from San Jose on Sunday evening, and we got straight back to work on Monday morning. My design team went back to the iLab to perfect the design we were printing on the Lulzbot printer. One of our prototypes is printing on the printer right now, so we can go back in the morning and see if it was successful.
This afternoon, the Smith students were given a tour of the 80x40 wind tunnel on the NASA base. This wind tunnel is the second largest wind tunnel on the NASA Ames campus. (The largest is the 80x120 wind tunnel.) Like its name implies, the test area for the wind tunnel is 80 feet wide and 40 feet tall. We actually got to go inside the test section, which was incredible. See below for photos from inside the 80x40 wind tunnel.
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| Back view of the model currently in the 80x40 wind tunnel. It is a part of tilt rotor for a civilian aircraft. Such an aircraft takes off like a helicopter, with the blades parallel to the ground. When airborne, the blades tilt 90° and the aircraft flies like an airplane. |
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| Front view of the tilt rotor that is currently in the 80x40 wind tunnel. |
It is time for bed now, but it is back to work tomorrow. We will return to the iLab to check on our latest print, and I will be attending a talk entitled "Satellite Formation-Flying for Future Space Science and Exploration." I am very excited for that.
As usual a great blog. Glad to see you are getting some time to see the local area. Those printers sound awesome.
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