A Spacecraft Motion Simulator for the STEM Fair

For their middle school STEM project, these students built a model motion simulator to explore the physics of landing a spacecraft.

A Space Science Simulation

Brenton and Ethan, middle school students at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Milpitas, CA, are both thinking about a future in STEM, but neither was actively interested in space science or engineering before their 7th-grade STEM project.

For last year's annual STEM fair, they browsed projects at Science Buddies and selected Make a Spacecraft Motion Simulator!. In this project, students use PVC pipe to build a cable-driven motion simulator to experiment with the physics involved in landing a spacecraft.

The year before, they did a microbiology project on the "5 second rule," so choosing the motion simulator project was a shift. The team says the project sparked their interest because they "wanted to learn more about space engineering and physics."

"We built a cube with PVC pipes that had holes in various positions. We made a LEGO spacecraft and tested the range of movement with strings connected to the spacecraft," they explain. "Our goal was to find the perfect amount of strings [for] the most range of motion on the spacecraft."

The most challenging part of the project wasn't building the simulator or learning how to use translational and rotational degrees of freedom to control the landing. The most challenging part, they say, was designing the spacecraft. "The model spacecraft had to be symmetrical and balanced, or it would topple over."

Once they had a model spacecraft that would work, they were able to put their motion simulator to the test to see if they could use the cables for a controlled landing.

"The best part of the project was being able to test and move the spacecraft around in our model. Being able to control the spacecraft was not only fun but also taught us the physics of string-controlled mechanisms."

"Learning the physics to control a landing spacecraft was very interesting," they say, noting that people at the STEM fair were also invited to try the motion simulator. "It especially attracted the kids, and they had trouble landing at targets. It was a lot more complicated than they anticipated."

Brenton and Ethan both plan to pursue careers in computer science or software engineering, but they say their motion simulator project did make them more interested in spaceflight and aerospace engineering.

With more than 1,400 STEM projects for students to explore, Science Buddies has projects that help students connect STEM to an area of interest or explore something they are curious about for the first time. A school science project may reveal a lasting interest in a new area of science or engineering.

Thank you to Brenton and Ethan for sharing their STEM project story with Science Buddies. If you have a story about doing a Science Buddies project or how Science Buddies makes a difference in your classroom or program, reach out to us at [email protected].