Reflections on the Power of Making Real Things

I most enjoyed the discussion portions of this course. It was fun to break away from the standard, monotonic, and formulaic business material from the other courses and to be given time to explore things that are in my personal area of interests. The maker day was probably the biggest tease. I really wanted to be able to play with the Arduino kit. I realize it was only one day because the course set out to accomplish more than just experimenting and playing. One big insight from this course was that the stuff I’m interested in pursuing is tucked away in several layers of “niche”. This means that communicating with the general public about these things is difficult. Difficult, not because folks finding boring (because its not), but because it does require a certain understanding of technology to be able to piece together meaning/applications/implications from what this work provides. So in short, my biggest challenge was learning how to communicate such a specialized area to non-space folks who don’t necessarily keep up with this industry. If I could go back in time to talk to my self in the beginning of the course, I would instruct myself to manage my time better! I wish I would have put together a working demo of what an online community in this field would look like. It would be like Facebook but for space folks playing with 3d printers.

Looking forward, I know that I will start a business of my own. I’ve always strived to be as independent as possible. In the past, I’ve run smaller businesses revolving my interests in music (restoring guitars, buying/selling guitars, helping bands get licensing deals, etc). I’m ready for the next challenge and opportunity to create something. I don’t yet know what that is, but I know that it will definitely be heavy on tech. Preferably something in space. Space is a boundless frontier with many challenges in the way of its exploitation. It is in those challenges that the opportunities reside. Bring it on and boldly go!

May 22, 2014

Now that I’m on the tail end of my undergraduate degree, I have experienced first hand the awesome transformative effect of education. This is the last line of text that I’m typing as a student of Baruch College. What a journey! Ad astra!

For many years research organizations and universities have been struggling to launch scientific payloads into space. In the past, groups had to submit proposals to ride along NASA or United States Air Force launches as “secondary payloads”. If selected, they had to custom make a small spacecraft, or figure out a way to attach their experiment to the primary payload. In 1999, California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University developed the CubeSat concept. The basic premise of the CubeSat miniature satellite is to create a standard platform so that all universities and research organizations would have access to space research.

Since the creation of the CubeSat platform there have been numerous experiments sent to space benefiting from this technology. Most have come from universities and a few have even hosted high school payloads. While this platform has been very successful, there is still room for improvement. While the CubeSat itself follows a standard, each experiment and payload within the CubeSat unique, thus requiring significant resources to custom make specialty components. One key factor lowering the costs in development has been the implementation of 3d printers within the research institutions. This allows students and teachers to create quick flight ready prototypes in order to build out their payloads. This is where the CubeSat 3D Printing Townsquare comes into play.

Even with the advantages of utilizing 3d printers to develop CubeSat experiments, many research teams spend a significant amount of time trying out different ways to 3d print their components. Many of these teams are mostly focused on the science and not the engineering so the 3d printing development cycle can even be a nuisance. My proposal is for an online platform for researchers, students and contractors to share their 3d printed component designs and even reach out to each other for additional help. Users will be able to browse existing designs, upload their own designs, and communicate with one another. The aim is to share innovation, speed up development time and forge new professional relationships amongst folks in this field.

Sources

• • http://www.livescience.com/25044-3d-printing-a-low-cost-satellite.html
• • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat
• • http://www.cubesatshop.com

At first I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve been a part of hackathons and I’ve attended Bent Fest so my expectations where somewhat in line with those events. However there was a different element. This class is a collection of Zicklin Honors business students. For them, this was the first time being exposed to a collaborative hands-on event like this. What was interesting was that even in the limited time given, everyone was able to put something together and exercise their creativity.

Initially, I gravitated toward the Arduino electronics kit. Unfortunately, the kit required an IDE and a power supply. I asked the professor if I could just spend the class time studying the manual but unfortunately that would defeat the purpose of the exercise. So, after moving around the room looking for another kit to work with, I ended up working with Viktoria on a modular electronics kit. I chose this over the other items because I wanted to do something with electronics and/or software. The other projects were a bit more on the artsy side, so this was a good second choice to the Arduino kit. This was not my first time working with electronics. In the past I’ve played with electronics kits and have done modifications to the circuits on musical instruments. What I haven’t done yet, is combine my interest in computer programming with “hardware” programming. Perhaps that might be my next step!

Viktoria and I ended up connecting a few of the modular electronic components to come up with a “walking propeller”. We connected a power module, a sliding potentiometer, a small propeller, and an LED light. When the slider is between 0-50%, the propeller spins in one direction. When the slider is above 50%, it spins in the opposite direction. When laid down flat, and when you oscillate the voltage with the potentiometer, the propeller alternates direction and creates the illusion of walking. The LED light pulsated along which helped us determine how much voltage was going through the circuit. Here is a video of our project in action. Given more time, I would want to learn to use the Arduino kit to build a remote sensing device that is aware of elements in its surrounding.