Sampling System for Hypothesized Surfaces: MSU-2

INSTITUTION

Michigan State University

CLASS

Nickel Class (2020 – 2021)

STUDENT TEAM

Taylor Burris, Mechanical Engineering
Michael Maes, Mechanical Engineering
Reid Mcdonnell, Mechanical Engineering
Jacob Nelson, Mechanical Engineering
Austin Rhodes, Mechanical Engineering

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The NASA Psyche Mission is set to launch in 2022 and arrive at the asteroid in 2026. It is an orbiter mission and will not land on the surface. It is possible to imagine, however, that after learning about Psyche from orbit, there may be scientists and engineers interested in proposing a subsequent mission to actually land on the asteroid and sample its surface. Designing to the range of hypothesized surfaces that might be found at Psyche (and keeping in mind other constraints such as its gravity), the team designed a sampling system capable of effectively extracting scientific samples from each of the hypothesized surfaces, including: mostly flat metallic surface, flat metallic with metal and/or rocky debris, rough/high-relief metallic and/or rocky terrain, high-relieve metallic crater walls.

This work was created in partial fulfillment of Michigan State University Capstone Course “ME 481”. The work is a result of the Psyche Student Collaborations component of NASA’s Psyche Mission (https://psyche.asu.edu). “Psyche: A Journey to a Metal World” [Contract number NNM16AA09C] is part of the NASA Discovery Program mission to solar system targets. Trade names and trademarks of ASU and NASA are used in this work for identification only. Their usage does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, by Arizona State University or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of ASU or NASA.