2019 USC/Boeing Freshman Design

Challenge

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Proudly designed and created by:
Rubinder Sekhon (Mechanical Engineering)
Aishwarya Krishnakumar (Physics/Computer Science)
Connor Divelbiss (Philosophy, Politics, Law & Computer Security)
Main Design/Objectives
GOAL To design a S/C (spacecraft) which maximizes sample return mass while minimizing
mission time, cost, and risk.

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MISSION DETAILS
Mission begins when the spacecraft arrives at asteroid BAA-2019 and has 10 hours to collect. Each system
option has an inherent power [W], mass [kg], and reliability [μ]. Re-entry to Earth is provided and
guaranteed.

MISSION CONSTRAINTS
- Size/mass of asteroid is too large to take home.
- Decrease cost, risk, and time it takes.
- Increase sample size.

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Vehicle subsystem breakdown
PROPULSIO POWER POWER
N STORAGE GENERATION
Electrostatic: Used to Li-So2: Chosen for Solar Photovoltaic: Necessary
decrease overall mass of reliability and amount of to decrease cost because power
system energy it creates, generation is where we spent
decreasing time of time the most money

PAYLOAD
Explode and bag: Chosen
to match with our design

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DESIGN CHECK PASSED ✓

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Data Cost
- Our initial difficulty was decreasing the cost of the power generator.
- Once we overcame this issue, we did not run into issues the with the cost again
and disregarded it as we tried to increase the amount of mass we could collect.

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Design Calculator
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cJ-KM3z3zAFV6nX9sQt35DBkooYL4V
rHXSt8877BoLg/edit#gid=1625297317

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 Vehicle Sketch - Explosive is dropped from the spacecraft to
the asteroid.
- Harpoon remains afloat at same height
above asteroid.
- Two main parts: Harpoon (from European
Space Agency) and Explosive. - Harpoon, using motion sensing technology,
gets ready to collect asteroid samples.
- Both are attached to each other and is flying
over the asteroid. - Debris/rocks from asteroid floats into space
as harpoon flies around to collect it.
- Flying until they find the perfect spot to release
the explosive. IV
E
OS
PL
EX

HA
RP
OO
EX
PL

N
OS
ON

IV
PO

E
R
HA

ASTEROID
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Closing Thoughts
- All of the cells within our spreadsheet are
green.
- We increased the mass that we could bring
back within the limitations of our system.
- Our team became creative in the design of the
vehicle which we described previously.

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$3,494,000.00
$6,000.00 below budget

1,924 kg
Mass of samples brought back

0.97
Reliability
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Thanks!
ANY QUESTIONS?
You can find me at:
kris184@usc.edu

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