Astronaut Tools

Jan 2016

In the first-year intro-to-engineering class at Tufts University, Aaron Johnson and I created a "space themed" project around developing tools that could be used by astronauts in space in order to perform typical tasks that happen on an EVA (extravehicular activity, or space walk): moving nuts between bolts or routing wires.

Nuts and Bolts Challenge

ES93-06 Space Project Moving Bolts
ES93-06 Space Project Wire Routing

Wire Routing Challenge

The students had to leverage the LEGO® MINDSTORMS EV3 hardware in order to develop a new tool to accomplish this task, and were evaluated by an in-class competition to see which tools performed the best/fastest.

Special thanks to Astronaut Don Pettit for the assignment inspiration, Former Astronaut Jeff Hoffman for sharing his experiences with the class, and Leah Fletcher for editing the video.

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