Texas A&M - Kingsville

Mechanical Battery Mentors Dr Larry Peel, Department of Mechanical Engineering, TAMU-Kingsville Students Firoz Ahmed, Richard Rivera, Jonathan Boehm, Luis Muratella, Javier Lozano, Eli Hatfield, Gary Garcia
Project Summary Under the Power, Communication, and Avionics area, there is a stated need for “High Specific-Energy-Density Compact Power Systems. ” To support this, a team of TAMUK undergraduate students, under the direction of Prof. Peel and a graduate student mentor, have started the development of a mechanical battery system. They will continue to develop a mechanical battery that theoretically can store more energy per kilogram than current systems, yet will contain little or no toxic chemicals such as those found in current electro-chemical batteries. The increased power densities of the batteries, and their ability to be connected to an astronaut exercise system for back-up power should reduce launch weight and launch costs. The battery stores energy by stretching fiber-reinforced elastomer strips. This energy is recovered through a generator. In previous semesters, the team worked on evaluating loading on composite strips in tension vs torsion and energy recovery in each case, they also worked on the overall system of the mechanical battery. Future work will include the purchase of final components, fabrication of the frame and support assembly, and testing of the battery. The team intends to fabricate the complete mechanical battery during the Fall 2008 semester, and test/ refine the battery during the Spring 2009 semester.
2009 Spring Presentation Mechanical Battery Presentation 2008 Fall Presentation Mechanical Battery Presentation Website To visit the TAMU-Kingsville website, go to http://users.tamuk.edu/ksdrg00. Gravity-Independent Laundry System Mentors Dr Larry Peel, Department of Mechanical Engineering, TAMU-Kingsville Students Firoz Ahmed, Jermey Murillo, Michael Orono, Victoria Bailey, Michael Guiteriez
Project Summary Under the Operations, Supportability & Logistics area, there is a stated need for “Advanced Clothing/Fabric Cleaning Systems.” This team will design and fabricate a safe, efficient portable clothes cleaner system that will remove organics, salts, dander and other particulate material attached to clothing. The Gravity-Independent Laundry System (GILS) will be designed for a lunar colony, the ISS, or Mars, but could have applications to earth-bound consumer markets as well. GILS should hold several articles of clothing and will be a closed system. First, the team will focus on understanding the issues associated with particulate materials attached to clothing and will work with JSC (Mr. James Broyan) to establish the design requirements for GILS so that such a system can meet NASA’s goals for space exploration. Some of the design requirements will be the cleaning efficiency, allowable consumables (mass/volume), energy efficiency and toxicity. Also the system will be evaluated for its ease of use by the crew, its reliability, and any potential hazards to the crew. The team will then develop several design concepts for GILS that meet these requirements. These initial concepts will be compared and evaluated and a baseline design will be selected. The team proposes to design, fabricate and test a prototype for the baseline design. The GILS prototype design and test results will be presented to JSC engineers for review.
2009 Spring Presentation Pictures
2009 Spring Presentation Gravity-Independent Laundry System Presentation Website To visit the TAMU-Kingsville website, go to http://users.tamuk.edu/ksdrg00.