Stability and environmental impact of 3D plastics in space Seaton High School – 913 SHIP class

AIM: Monitor and analyse changes to material, design and function of 3D printed spacecraft or satellites (including some basic electronics) in the context of launch and environmental conditions. (Student questions included 'what will happen to our 3D shapes in space and are we polluting space and Earth with chemicals by being in space?‘) PROJECT BRIEF

EXPERIMENT: 3D Printed designs of artificial satellites or spacecraft, to a maximum of 100 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm per design. Designs to incorporate some basic electronics and sensor technology (similar to Internet of Things, [IoT]) to monitor functioning and changes to material (structural and or chemical). For example, student questions included whether there is flexing and warping of materials used to print their designs in space and are we able to design electronics to detect this and have the information monitored on our smartphones. Will the space environment result in any chemical changes to the material used and how can we monitor both the environment and the material to see if there is a connection. PROJECT BRIEF

SKILLS AND CURRICULUM LINKS: Engineering Design Process, EDP, (STEM) collaboration (STEM) critical and creative thinking (STEM) CAD, digital skills, electronics and programming (Australian Curriculum & STEM) project management (STEM) interaction of light with matter (SACE & STEM) PROJECT BRIEF

BETTER EARTH IN THE FUTURE: Students are concerned about the materials used in satellites and spacecraft. Do their chemicals end up changed and in our atmosphere and oceans through the launch, lifetime and burn up during re-entry? Can this be detected and monitored? PROJECT BRIEF

SPACE SHUTTLE 3D MODEL This space shuttle was designed based on real models and is one 25 millionth of the size of an actual shuttle with launchers and supplies. CAD drawings & imagery created by the students in industry standard software.

CONTROL EXPERIMENT ON EARTH Recreate the same experiment on Earth Compare changes of 3D printed shapes in space, to Earth Ensure chemical and structural changes aren’t caused by different variables Increases reliability of results Purely the environment of space causing any changes

Left – Short program that makes the launch scaffold retract. This is an example of some of the coding that we will use later on in our project. Animation programmed on scratch- www.scratch.mit.edu CODING SCREENSHOTS

Above- Generates random smoke coming from the rocket ship.↑ Right- Counts down until the rocket launch. 

More than 500,000 pieces of debris are being tracked They travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph Millions of pieces that are too small to be tracked Space Debris had a potential danger to ALL space vehicles The International Space station are developing a machine to combine recycling and 3D printing into one device Materials are exposed to vacuum, bombardment by ultraviolet and X-rays, and high-energy charged particles. POLLUTION IN SPACE

PLASTIC FIBRES IN DRINKING WATER Tap water and plastic bottled water in cities on five continents is contaminated with microscopic plastic fibres. The US had highest contamination rate at 94% European nations like the UK and Germany had lowest contamination rates at 72%. Research conducted on animals has suggested they could cause or trigger cancer, hormone disorders and other problems The particles aren’t biodegradable The particles will continue to break down into smaller pieces that can pierce cells and travel through lymph nodes and other organs PLASTIC FIBRES IN DRINKING WATER

POSSIBLE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

COFFEE PODS IN LANDFILL There is no biodegradable alternative to aluminium and plastic coffee pods Coffee pods take 500 years to degrade More than 9 billion coffee pods ended up in landfill last year COFFEE PODS IN LANDFILL

PROJECT DESIGN, POSSIBLE COLLABORATIONS RaviTeja Duggineni – Master Student at University of Adelaide Dr Errita Jones, Astrophysicist, University of South Australia

Monitoring Plastic Up In Space - Seaton High School Is On The Case