During the month of April, the whole team has been extra focused on machining and building. Machining finally completed towards the end of April and we swiftly moved into the building phase.
Every member of the team is required to know how the launching and catching mechanisms are put together in order to be able to fix any issues that may arise during flight. Within the past week, we have trained all the members in how the mechanisms are put together and even had an assembly line going in order to finish building all the payloads.
In mid-May, Sam was working on the light defuser to be able to see the particles in the tube more clearly on the go pro. Brad and Kelly worked on cutting and building the PVC pipe that is being used for the back lighting.
Allyson and Kelly worked on finishing the ESU. They have finished about 90 percent of the structure including all the PVC holding clamps, the camera mounts and the battery pack boxes.
At the end of April, Brad, Kelly, and Sara did an inventory of all the parts that have been machined, ordered, and 3D printed for CATE. After laying all the pieces out, they were able to figure out what was missing and what was done in order to make moving forward a little easier. Along with that, Kelly finished the electrical feedthrough for the batter packs that will power the backlight and the launching and catching mechanisms.
Chris took on more drop tower testing with the vibrating motors and springs in order to see how the dust will move and how strong the springs need to be in order to launch the balls at desired speeds.
Finally, Sara worked with a local high school to set up a presentation of our work, program, and UCF in general to AP/IB Physics juniors and seniors. The presentation will take place next week. Stay tuned for a video, gallery and blog about how the presentation goes throughout next week!