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Made On Mars: Design And Manufacturing Of Structural Polymer-Regolith Composites, Pailey M. Vitale Jan 2026

Made On Mars: Design And Manufacturing Of Structural Polymer-Regolith Composites, Pailey M. Vitale

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Human exploration of Mars is constrained by harsh environmental conditions and the prohibitive cost of transporting materials from Earth. Long-term sustainability requires the local production of mechanical and structural components using resources available on Mars, thereby minimizing payload mass. This project investigates polymer–regolith composites derived from atmospheric CO₂ and mineral-rich regolith as a pathway toward in-situ manufacturing. These composites, when compatible with additive manufacturing, could replace imported plastics, enable on-demand fabrication, and support closed-loop recycling systems. The objective is to design and evaluate polymer–regolith composites that maintain mechanical integrity and environmental resistance under Martian conditions, including extreme temperature swings, radiation …


Breaking The Vapor Barrier And Scale: Revolutionizing Steel Quenching With Ultrasound Technology, Anthony O. Santos Jan 2026

Breaking The Vapor Barrier And Scale: Revolutionizing Steel Quenching With Ultrasound Technology, Anthony O. Santos

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The quenching process is a fundamental heat treatment used to enhance material properties by heating steel to its austenitizing temperature and rapidly cooling it to form high-strength martensite. However, this process is often hindered by two surface barriers: the Leidenfrost effect (vapor blanket) and oxide scale. These cooling limitations restrict the use of steel in high-performance aerospace applications due to inconsistent material properties and unpredictable engineering properties. This research investigates the use of fully submersible, 50-watt 40 kHz ultrasound technology to improve cooling rates in a Jominy test [4]. Through numerical simulations and experimental validation, the study demonstrates that acoustic …


Short Strand Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polylactic Acid Filament For Additive Manufacturing, Dale Chenoweth, Lukas Seggi, Luke Phillips Jan 2024

Short Strand Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polylactic Acid Filament For Additive Manufacturing, Dale Chenoweth, Lukas Seggi, Luke Phillips

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this design project, the additive manufacturing filament of short strand carbon fiber (SSCF) reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) composite was developed. The micro-size, precision cut SSCFs were mixed with the PLA pellets through a melting homogenization process. Through this process the composite material block is cut and divided into pieces for ease of pelletizing. The material block pieces are then pelletized to be fed through the single screw extruder to develop the SSCF-PLA composite filament. The SSCF-PLA filaments were manufactured with a varying amount of SSCF ranging from 0.5% to 10% of the material block's weight. Development of a 1% …


Investigating The Feasibility Of 5g In A Lunar Environment, Adam Usher, William Wilcox, Taylor Modlin Jan 2021

Investigating The Feasibility Of 5g In A Lunar Environment, Adam Usher, William Wilcox, Taylor Modlin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this project is to examine the feasibility of implementing a 5G wireless network in a lunar environment. In order to do so, the ideas and technologies behind 5G should be explored, as well as how it relates to previous wireless technologies in terms of speed, coverage, latency, and other important factors for a successful lunar network. A simplified representation of the lunar network was created to observe how the system would function. Two Arduino Uno boards were used alongside a wifi shield to simulate a lunar rover taking in data through sensors, compiling the data, sending it …


Space Dynamics Laboratory Payload Challenge: Autonomous Water Sampling Uav, Thomas Wheeler, Zachary Williams, Joseph Stack Jan 2019

Space Dynamics Laboratory Payload Challenge: Autonomous Water Sampling Uav, Thomas Wheeler, Zachary Williams, Joseph Stack

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The following report has been completed over the course of the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 semesters at The University of Akron by Joseph P. Stack (Aerospace Systems Engineering), Thomas J. Wheeler (Mechanical Engineering) and Zachary M. Williams (Mechanical Engineering). The purpose of this project was to create a payload system for the Akronauts Rocket Design Team to use at the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) Spaceport America Cup. The Competition as a challenge that is sponsored by Space Dynamics Laboratory specifically regarding payload systems. The challenge in very open-ended and allows student to identify their own scientific experiment and …