Engineering Design Process
Define the Problem:
As a team, we needed to create a rocket launch and recovery system to safely launch and recover a human (egg) to and from orbit. We will need to take into consideration the success of our launch and recovery system, the cost of both systems and our ability to generate support for our program.
Generate Concepts:
We came up with multiple concepts to best protect our egg. Our first idea was to put our egg in a small container. The second idea was to wrap our egg in a strong, flexible material and our last idea was to put the egg in a tennis ball.
Develop a Solution:
Our group decided to put our egg in a tennis ball. We came up with this solution because we believed that the small space of the tennis ball would prevent the egg from cracking. In order to better ensure that our egg won't crack, we decided to put peanut butter over our egg. We also needed a way to tie the parachute to the tennis ball, so we made a paper "container" to hold the tennis ball and we attached the strings to the paper.
Construct and Test Prototype:
As stated above, we put peanut butter on our egg and put that in a tennis ball. Then we added a paper "container" so we could add the parachute strings to it. To test our egg we went to the top of a bleacher stand and dropped it from there. Unfortunately, our egg did crack. The tennis ball bounced up before finally landing; therefore we believe that and a lack of protective covering is what caused our egg to crack.
Evaluate Solution:
After testing our egg we knew the tennis ball was not a good idea. We then came up with the idea of wrapping our egg in bubble wrap and foam. We came up with this idea after viewing others group's successful egg drop who used one of the materials or a similar material. We believe using both of these materials, which are known to prevent things from breaking, that our egg will not crack and we will have a successful launch.
Present Solution:
We had a successful rocket launch. Our rocket went relatively high and our egg did not crack. Below each group member will give a reflection of how well we did and if there was room for improvement.
Debbie Fekade:
Overall I feel our rocket was very successful. Our rocket went relatively high to how high we thought it would go. Although our parachute did not shoot out like it was supposed to, our egg did not crack and it was a success. The launch aspect of the project, we were successful. For the aesthetic and construction part of the rocket I feel we were semi successful. The construction part of the rocket was a success but we could have made the aesthetic part of the rocket a little better. We could have done a neater job painting the orange stripe and that is one thing I would improve on if given the chance. During our construction process we could have done a better job communicating. Logan and Isaac mostly worked on building the rocket while Nathan worked on the math and parachute, and I was working on the website. We were very focused on the job we had so instead of acting as a group we mostly acted as if this was individual work. We didn’t really communicate the specifics of what we were doing so at times we were out of loop with what other members were doing. That is something we could have an improved on to make our overall project better. But that was a minor part and we pulled through at the end to make a good final project that ended up being successful.
Isaac King:
Overall, our rocket project was successful. As a team we all worked together and collaborated to finish the project on time. Debbie mostly managed the website, Logan kept the team together and helped build, Nathan launched and did the math and I created the sketches and help with the building process. Our ability to split up the work and function in a productive matter led to most of our success. Although we tended to procrastinate some of the time; we did end up finishing on time. We could have improved our method for protecting the egg. Although our final method did work our original method didn't so we could not be sure our final model would function properly. I would have liked to test our second egg contraption but we ran out of time due to the launch date and slight time management issues that we most likely could have improved on. One thing we changed was the size of our rocket. We thought about using two cardboard tubes to make our rocket bigger but after realizing our rockets weight we changed our design to 1 cardboard tube in order to decrease our weight. We could have improved our aesthetics. Our model in the end didn't look overly good. It was painted but it ended up looking pretty bad. If i could go back and change our design I would create a smaller contraption to hold the smaller egg, I would make our rocket a bit thinner and lighter and the paint would be put on nicely so it would be aesthetically appealing. After watching the rockets launch i noticed the thin ones tended to go very high so creating a thin rocket would help us accomplish our highest goal. In the end we ended up launching our rocket about 23 feet off the ground and keeping our egg completely intact. Overall there were some aspects of our rocket we could have improved on like the weight and aesthetics but i think our group did create a good model rocket considering we did meet the required goal of keeping the egg from cracking.
Logan Lewis:
In my opinion our rocket launch was very successful. The team and I, me being the team leader, worked well as a group and achieved the goal of launching our rocket and securing the egg. The process that led us to accomplishing this goal was a series of steps that had to be done in order to be successful in the long run. This included the steps of designing, modeling, testing, and finally, reflecting and revising. The engineering design process played a major role in the making of our rocket and the capsule.
Nathan Fair:
I think that for this project our rocket overall was a huge success. The reason I feel our rocket was a huge success was in the fact that for the most part we did our own part and the finished product was way better than expected. This made our process flow and when it got to the end it was not bad. For the specifics that went well was the launch, the aesthetics, and the math.I did the math at home and the paint did not add weight but made it look really cool. Looking at our height of the launch it really made me feel good. I feel I would have improved parachute ejection and cause it to launch. If I could have gone back and worked it out again I would have took a role in printing out the rubric and assigning roles. I feel my group would have doubled in productivity with very specific roles. I would also have asked Mr.Holler for help because the price is worth understanding the math.