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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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-
CODING SCREENSHOTS

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. POSSIBLE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

13. 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

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

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