Titan Endurance Project

Simulation of a spacecraft's journey into Titan's orbit

January 2023 - April 2023

Project Coordinator

Team:

• Japanjot Dhawliwal

• Marisa Fox

• Jaehun Lee

• Christoph Stangl

• Nicholas Yap

• Koya Yasuda

As part of the second-year curriculum at UBC, we were tasked with a tabletop (2D) simulation of launching a “lander” into the orbit of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. In this simulation, the lander was a small (10.7mm to 40.1mm diameter) ball made of steel, acetal, nylon, or wood. The objective was to transport this ball from “Earth” to “Titan.” See the diagram below.

An “orbiter”--a vehicle driven by potential energy (ex. Spring, gravitational, but no electrical)--leaves earth location 1 from rest and travels toward earth location 2, or vice versa. Along this path, it must launch the lander into Titan’s orbit (a funnel on the table). All driving force must be potential energy, but an electrical release mechanism is allowed. Any electrical sensors are allowed. In addition, the orbiter must be able to launch at various speeds, given on competition day (this project was also a competition against other teams of 2nd-year students). There were several other smaller requirements and scoring factors like cost, weight, aesthetics, size, and sustainability.

This project was intended to give us experience in the engineering design process. Through it, I learned about the iterative nature of this process and how important it is to make quick, thoughtful decisions. Below is a chart of the process that my team took to reach our final design.

As Project Coordinator, I was responsible for much of the organization of work throughout the 4-month period we worked on this project. I created Gantt charts, planned and led meetings, organized documentation, and was responsible for the flow of our process shown above.

As someone who wants everyone to be happy with every decision that is made, I learned that pleasing everyone is not always possible. I practiced making decisions based on information available, dealing with conflict between members, and making sure all members understand the reasoning behind decisions. From a leadership perspective, I learned a lot about managing a team, including the relationship between productivity, team morale, and team development.

Aside from coordinating the project, I led the design of the lander-launcher and electronics. With lots of CAD and 3D printing experience, I created several prototypes of a ramp lander-launcher and a mechanism to hold it in place. See below.

This project was one of my first using electronics to accomplish a goal. I spent hours troubleshooting the use of a solenoid to release the lander, which I later gave up on after frying my Arduino from back current (despite using a diode). I had trouble using 18650 Li-ion batteries. I could not get an accelerometer to accurately calculate distance traveled by the orbiter (the double integration to get position from acceleration yielded high error). In the end, I used a servo motor to open and close a door that releases the lander. After mounting an optical wheel to the back axle of the orbiter, we were able to use an optical encoder to accurately measure distances.

I learned many valuable lessons in technical and non-technical aspects from the Titan Endurance Project. Over the course of the project, I improved in project management and grew closer to my team, which allowed us to function efficiently. See the attached document for more information on my team’s work through the project.