YMMT

Photo courtesy of Trinity Tigers, Trinity University.

If you read the title you’re probably thinking one of Seibon Carbon’s sponsored cars is going to space. While that would be quite legendary, we’re not sure NASA is interested in sending a race car to explore outer space.
Instead, Seibon Carbon is working with students from Trinity University, located in Texas, for this year’s NASA Challenge: Asteroid Float Sample Grabber. The 2015 NASA Micro-G NExT Initiative challenges undergraduate students to design, build, and test a spacewalk tool required for NASA’s future exploration of asteroids; that’s where Seibon Carbon’s carbon fiber tube comes in.

The mission is to build a reacher/grabber to collect loosely adhered surface rocks known as float samples from an asteroid. The grabber needs to weigh less than 5 pounds, making Seibon Carbon’s tube perfect for the job!
The first task is to send a robot to a near-earth asteroid, remove a multi-ton boulder from its surface, and bring that boulder into orbit around Earth’s moon. Once this has been accomplished, astronauts will reach the asteroid body, explore it, and return to Earth with samples.

The capsule is a two-piece assembly, which opens and closes with the jaws. In the closed and locked position, the capsule is held shut via 4 small neodymium magnets. The capsule can be quickly removed and replaced with the cable-operated retention system, allowing for multiple samples to be both captured and stored. The 26 part assembly is composed of aluminum alloy, various polymers, and equipped with 3 capsules.

Project Asteroid Float Sample Grabber is still in its testing phase. If everything goes well, NASA may utilize this tool as early as 2020!
Learn more about Trinity University here.

If you read the title you’re probably thinking one of Seibon Carbon’s sponsored cars is going to space. While that would be quite legendary, we’re not sure NASA is interested in sending…

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