The Space Cup TM
This idea has been brought to life
The Space Cup was brought to life in combination with another invention idea, the No lid and covered straw invention and brought to life by Vidhisha Patel and other students from Space Concordia.
They said about the invention idea,
'We chose to create a combination of Mataya and Marley’s ideas as they were both serving the same purpose,were unique and found a very clever way to deal with liquids in space by using a cover on a straw and having a grabbing arm. One challenge we faced was to make sure that the invention could be used in space as liquids become a glob in space. Our favourite part of this project was designing one single object that combines these two awesome ideas all without compromising the looks that both Mataya and Marley had in mind for their cups.'
They even made a video to document their making process!
Maker blog entries
For a little over the month, 4 members of the various divisions of Space Concordia came together to create this synergy of the Space Cup ™ and the No-Lid & Covered Straw design. Below are the chronicles of the design, manufacturing and decoration process of this cup. Enjoy!
Everything is now actualized and we have all the pieces in hand. Assembly went quite smoothly in every fashion,but we had to make a few changes to make sure all was well. Aya and Vidhisha worked hard to meet the deadlines, working day and night to actualize the dream and make our little inventors dream come true with the planets to complete the scenery. Applying some of the rudimentary laws of physics, the team created a handy mechanism to properly have the straw open and close after minutes of pondering with a friend of the Space Concordia team, Muneeb. Finally, the night before shipment, Celeste re-ran over the cup’s design and cleaned up the paint with a steady hand and we finally put our little creation to rest in a box to Ottawa.
Everything is now actualized and we have all the pieces in hand. Assembly went quite smoothly in every fashion,but we had to make a few changes to make sure all was well. Aya and Vidhisha worked hard to meet the deadlines, working day and night to actualize the dream and make our little inventors dream come true with the planets to complete the scenery. Applying some of the rudimentary laws of physics, the team created a handy mechanism to properly have the straw open and close after minutes of pondering with a friend of the Space Concordia team, Muneeb. Finally, the night before shipment, Celeste re-ran over the cup’s design and cleaned up the paint with a steady hand and we finally put our little creation to rest in a box to Ottawa.
Once the meeting for finalizing dimensions was concluded, Vidhisha hit the ground running by running around Montreal from store to store grabbing paint, styrofoam balls and everything in between to allow the creation to be the best it could be.
On the technical side, Jiyeon and Aya kept busy by creating the CADs (Computer Aided Drawing). CADs are essentially a 2D or 3D drawing that comes to life and is the step in between the paper drawing and a physical object.
Unfortunately, the 3D printer that the team was working with crashed a few times delaying the production a bit with our cup body and lid. Since the library technology sandbox was closing for the long weekend,we would have to wait until Tuesday to print our parts. We then decided to order some translucent filament online and it finally arrived on Saturday afternoon. Then,we got to finish our print at the SpaceLab which is opened 7 days a week. Once the cup was done printing,we started printing our last part,the lid. After four days of hard work in the lab, we can say that we finally have something tangible and it was beautiful seeing the process of our creation come to life. Now that we have all our parts in hand, we just need to work, work, work to have everything prepared to send to Ottawa and allow our Little Inventors to see their cup and straw in action.
After receiving some feedback from the Canadian Space Agency about the International Space Station and how liquids behave in space,we realized that the design will need some changes.
Our team decide to meet again and we talked about how we can add these important elements to our design. For example,the International Space Station there are many velcro patches on surfaces,thus we decided to keep the look of the suction cup from Space Cup™,but will be adding a velcro sticker underneath. The second issue was that liquids tend to become globs in space,so to deal with that,we decided to 3D print the cup,using a translucent PLA filament,so that the astronaut will be able to see through the cup and stick their straw in the glob. After we figured out how to deal with these different issues,we agreed on a final design and drew it out. Then,measuring different objects around us,like plastic cups and water bottles,we added dimensions to our design. Now,we are all set to make this real!
“No lid and covered straw” and “Space Cup™” are very creative and colourful ideas. Before starting to make the project,our team had a meeting and discussed how we can combine the 2 awesome ideas. After a bit of brainstorming,we came up with the idea of designing one half of the cup like the Space Cup™ and one half like no lid and covered straw and having 2 different lids. Then,we put our ideas on paper and drew the different parts and added colour,creating a very first draft of the object we will make.
What our experts think!
Interesting ideas, I can tell that a great deal of thought has gone into the design and selection of materials! I found the detailed illustrations most helpful. There are a number of challenges that still have to be addressed before the proposed solutions are fully operational. The one is that fluid in microgravity will tend to form as a glob and ensuring that the fluid is at the right place at the right time will be critical in making the concept work. I could be that adding a piston or bladder to the proposed design will help you in achieving the result that you are aiming for.