SHOEBOX Rover WHEELS & AXLE: AutomataAutomota

ADDING MOTION Rotating parts allow an instrument on a NASA spacecraft to take advantage of its position. You will make two “automata” (ah-TOM-a-tah)—moving instrument mounts— for your rover. An automaton uses wheels and axles inside the shoebox to transfer movement to the outside. Cardboard circles that connect at a 90-degree angle, like gears, move your instruments. You are a born engineer! Human beings have always 1 PUNCH YOUR HOLES found ways to help us work and explore. Our earliest Each set of motions machines were simple, but key to our survival. A (automaton) needs two spoon, a hammer, an arrow. As technology evolved, aligned holes on the long we invented more complex machines. Plows, sides of the box, and one wheelbarrows, bicycles. Eventually, we designed hole through the lid. machines that perform amazing jobs. Now we even  Measure your box or use explore the outer edges of our solar system. Yowza! the templates provided for hole placement on the SHOEBOX ROVER long sides. SIMPLE MACHINES Explore cool NASA -- A horizontal skewer inventions. Build It all starts with six simple goes through the box engineering skills. Get 3 machines. Levers, wedges, sides for the drive axle, your hands dirty. Work in screws, pulleys, wheels and parallel to the floor. a team. Have fun! How? axles, and inclined planes. It should be able to spin freely. Design your own Shoebox Combine these simple -- A vertical skewer goes through the top of the Rover. What do you need? machines and do more complex box for the movement axle. Curiosity. Time. Craft jobs! Every NASA spacecraft materials: uses simple machines in its 2 BRACE YOUR INSTRUMENTS  Explore design.  Glue a 3” paper straw  Create through each top hole so  Collaborate THE SIX SIMPLE MACHINES that it sticks down inside Levers the box about 1/4”. This will  Problem-solve Wedge be the bearing for the axle.  Build a Rover! Screw  Glue a right triangle Pulley connecting your straw Wheels & Axle and top of your box. This Inclined Plane braces your vertical axle.

1 3 AUTOMATA: Choose Your Movements GO! The Spacecraft Bus

What’s life’s home base? Our body! The skeleton offers structure. Skin gives protection. Outside, sensors gather information. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin. Inside, we process. We take in food & oxygen & water for energy. Our brain is mission control. Think of a spacecraft like a robot. A human- CHOOSE YOUR MOVEMENTS: 3 Instruments (Camera! like robot, going places Antenna and dish!) on the top of your rover can go hard for humans to visit. It needs a lot of the same things. round & round or up & down. Look at the sketch to The spacecraft body is often referred to as a “bus” or a understand where to place the axle on the drive wheel ”chassis.” Its structure is the skeleton. It carries all the for the desired movement. working parts of the mission, from engine to camera to 4 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER TIP: Cut a little satellite dish. It protects instruments from the harsh space  Glue movement wheel to end of door in your environment. shoebox to help movement axle you see. An explorer robot’s shape and construction depends on its -- Place through straw bearing in lid. It can become mission. Where is it going? What questions does it hope to  Poke drive wheel onto drive axle an opening for answer? -- Round & Round is centered another 1 -- Up & Down is off-center instrument! GETTING STARTED: A shoe box will be your  Place drive wheel on axle so the movement rover bus. It will house wheel rests on it perpendicularly -- Round & Round is off-center your mechanical parts & -- Up & Down is centered instruments.  Collect all materials TEST MOVEMENT  Construct your box When movement on rover top is what you want it to be: if necessary   Secure drive axle ends using a spool or binder clip  Use templates or measure to find the center line -- Glue one side of the axle. around the top and bottom as shown. -- Snug close to rover (limits side to side movement) -- Trim skewer and secure 2nd side Note: Remember, the lid will be slightly larger than the  Glue drive wheel in place on axle box when you make your measurements.

4 2 WHEELS & AXLE: Locomotion LEVERS

Robotic spacecraft help us explore distant worlds. We In ancient Greece, Archimedes once said: “With a long design them to interact with their surroundings and gather enough lever, I can move the world!” Levers are simple data. Moving parts and locomotion can be key. machines we use everywhere. Our earliest inventions were levers. Sticks. Brooms. Spears. Many have another simple A wheel (or two) is placed on a shaft called an axle. The machine on them, like a wedge. This helps them dig, cut and axle goes through a straw bearing. This structure supports do work. You even have levers in your body. Think joints and the axle and allows it to spin freely. limbs. Find levers on your body!

1 LOCOMOTION DESIGN: Skewers = Axles When we send robotic explorers to places people cannot go, For smooth locomotion, Plastic lids = Wheels we often equip them with levers. Robotic arms are complex Shoebox Rover axles and Straws = Bearings machines that use a series of levers. They perform a range of bearings are parallel with the Triangles = Struts tasks, from collecting samples to moving science instrument. ends of the box. 1 EXPLORE LEVERS  For 3 sets of wheels and axles Make a lever out of two straws: -- Struts: Cut 6 right cardboard  Put a dot of glue in one end of right triangles each & squish -- Punch hole with regular punch  -- Braces: six small right triangles  Punch a small hole at the end   Measure and draw lines on the bottom  Connect with a small brad—this is your fulcrum  of the box, as shown  Make another! -- Glue the struts to the bottom of the box How might two levers combine to make a robotic arm? -- Center on the horizontal lines, parallel to box sides TIP: Notice these Tool Mount = Load  inside segments  Connect a straw bearing to opposite struts. are all the same Glue to secure. length and make 3 PARTS OF A LEVER -- Glue braces to inside of struts a square. Fulcrum -- Slide axle through straw bearing. Do not glue! FULCRUM: The pivot Axles must spin freely. Fulcrum point of a lever.  Poke a hole through the center of each wheel. FORCE: The effort -- Add wheels to applied to a lever to the axles Fulcrum make it move and lift -- Trim skewers a load. -- Glue to secure Fulcrum LOAD: The weight or object you are trying The Handle = Force to lift or move with the lever. Mount to Bus

5 7 PIVOT, TURN, & TOUCH MOVE, PIVOT, TURN!

DESIGN CHALLENGE: Make a robotic arm! What work do MORE APPLICATIONS: Wheels and axle can be you want it to do? Collect soil or air or liquid samples? incorporated into other instruments to make them move, Move an instrument? Or solar panels, a drill, a secret pivot and turn! Explore examples of swivel mounts (which hatch? Its purpose will help you decide the best design. hold instruments on the box) and hinges. Customize your rover design with detail and creativity. 2 SWIVEL MOUNT  Punch a hole on rover where instrument is wanted  Punch hole in the center of a cardboard circle (wheel mount)  Connect with large brad at top (axle)  Glue instrument to wheel, leaving it free to move on the axle 3 HINGES DESIGN YOUR LEVER ARM: A hinge is a movable  Design your robotic arm (sketching ideas helps) joint made  Construct it with an axle   Mount it to your rover and bearing See Wheels & Axle: Swivel Mount attached to two separate objects. This LEVER PRACTICE allows them to pivot and turn. Paper or small stir straws Hone your making skills can be used for your bearings. Skewers or paperclips with our lever templates. make great axles.  Print (ideally on cardstock  Cut out  Score fold lines with  Embroidery needle  Fold & glue  Punch holes  Match hole #’s  Connect with tiny brads

8 6 WEDGES INCLINED PLANES

Wedges are simple machines Inclined planes are flat surfaces tilted at an angle, like a that help us cut, scoop and ramp. They help workers get heavy loads into and out collect. Look around your of trucks. They are wheelchair ramps and pedestrian kitchen or garden and you’ll walkways. Even animals create inclined planes— think of the see many examples. Knives. zigzag pathways deer make to climb hills. Spoons. Shovels. A wedge The inclined plane’s angled surface is key to its usefulness. is often combined with other It reduces the force needed to lift a load straight up by simple machines. With a distributing it over distance. But there is a trade-off. The handle as a lever, it scoops. greater the slope of an inclined plane, the shorter the Two wedges that meet in distance you have to go. But it takes more effort to get a point can be an inclined there. plane. NASA missions like Path Finder had an inclined plane ramp to deploy the first Mars rover, called Sojourner. And rovers need to maneuver up and down inclined planes as they Many wedges are used SPACE WEDGES explore rough terrain.

on NASA spacecraft. Wedges in the form of nose cones, Mars Sojourner Rover fins, wings and heat shields TRIANGLES, BRACES, & SUPPORTS: had rows of wedge teeth are used in spacecraft to make Because inclined planes are great at distributing force along on its tractor-like treads them aerodynamic. Their angled their angled surfaces, they make good supports. Braces to give it traction as it shape helps them cut through the secure your engineering components. moved on the Red atmosphere. Projectiles, from spears Planet’s surface. to jets to rockets, use wedges to AXLE SUPPORTS: AXLE BRACES: Wedges can be found in assist with flight. NASA is designing A paper straw with cardboard Cardboard or foam core the form of scoopers and a inflatable heat shield to protect or foam core right triangles are triangles can position and shovels on many Mars spacecraft entering the Martian used to support your vertical support your wheels and atmosphere that is a mushroom- rovers, including Spirit, skewers. axles. A bearing made shaped wedge! Opportunity and Curiosity. out of a straw is attached The new Mars lander, to hold your axles. See InSight, has a wedge Wheels and Axles. shaped projectile carrying a thermometer probe. It will be deployed into the Martian surface to take its temperature.

9 11 MOVE & BRACE CUT, SCOOP, & COLLECT

DESIGN CHALLENGE: DESIGN CHALLENGE: Design an instrument for your lever Design an inclined plane arm using wedges. If your lever arm is like your own arm, ramp for your rover. what do you want its “hand” to do? Your tool could be a Be creative! pick, ax, shovel, or even a temperature probe. Get creative! Ideas: Think about:  A trap door that  The science data you want to collect opens down to make  The work you want your arm to do a ramp to deploy a mini rover 1 DESIGN WEDGE TOOLS:  Create a system to Our rover’s wedge tool is a shovel. push your instrument We made it by converting a 1” cube. out the trap door with Experiment with other 3D shapes. a retractable arm Add special details. or lever Ideas:  Create a lever cover with a paper clip axle and 2 beads  Add a brad or hinge assembly at the end of your arm for range 1 MAKE A MINI TOOL: of motion Design a mini instrument  Place several instruments on for your ramp. Our mini one rotating mount as a turret rover is housed in a secret compartment. It has a prism body and paper TO MAKE A SHOVEL straw cameras. Stir stick Choose a 3D template: bearings, paper clip axles,  and beads are the wheels.  Cut the side squares There’s even a lever latch! at a diagonal (see yellow template)  Remove the last end square  Fold and glue tabs

Add a hinged cover. Use a stir straw as a bearing and a paper clip for an axle.

12 10 SCREWS PULLEYS

Screws are simple yet amazing machines. They are made A pulley is a simple machine that combines a wheel and by wrapping an inclined plane around a cylinder (what...?). axle with a line like a rope or chain. It is used to raise and lower a load. Pulleys are important in construction and A screw’s spiraled edges are called threads. They work to transportation. Think cranes, large and small. Sailboat lines. distribute force when turned, twisting them into material like Bicycle gears. Fishing rods. earth or wood. Many NASA rovers employ a drill system for sample collection and A single fixed pulley is helpful directing a line. Combine geologic analysis. more than one pulley and you reduce the force needed to shift that load. Use two pulley wheels and it takes half NASA missions use many screws to the force to do the same amount of work! That’s called a assemble and connect spacecraft parts. mechanical advantage. Space shuttle astronauts used a robotic DESIGN CHALLENGE: drill to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The brilliant engineering behind this drill has Your challenge is to made space repair missions much safer design a pulley system for and effective for astronauts. More complex your rover to do a task. machines like propellers, helicopter blades Think about what type of and fans are also screws that spin around instrument you would like it and cut through air or water. to lift and move. Experiment with one or more pulleys. ROBOTIC GEOLOGISTS

Landers and rovers have simple and complex machines to do ULTIMATE CHALLENGE: SPACE PULLEYS the job of a geologist. Spirit and Make your rover your own. Opportunity used an instrument Use your new design mindset NASA has made ingenious called the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) and making skills to: use of pulleys in the design of which was the first instrument to several missions. Mars Science CHALLENGE: 1) envision the world your drill into the interior of another spacecraft will investigate Laboratory used an innovative Examine the image planet. Curiosity has a more sky crane to lower the Curiosity above. Draw an 2) decide the science arrow to other sophisticated drill system that questions you want rover to the red planet’s surface simple machines works in tandem with a suite of to answer in mid-air. The new Mars InSight you see that are instruments and on-board lab to 3) design the instruments lander has a cool pulley system part of a screw’s analyze the Martian surface. and tools you need combined with a robotic arm. It design. Have a blast, you engineer will place a temperature probe, Hint: Think wedge! you! seismometer and cover on the Martian surface.

13 15 MOVE & LIFT DRILL, CUT & CONNECT

DESIGN CHALLENGE: Design an instrument that uses a screw. Consider:  The science data you want to collect  The work you want your arm to do

1 DESIGN YOUR PULLEY SYSTEM: You can use the insides of an old glue stick or Chapstick for the screw itself, as well as screws from the family toolbox. Your challenge is to design a pulley system to do a task. What instrument on your rover would benefit 1 DESIGN A DRILL: from one? Experiment with one or more pulleys. For our example, take apart an old glue stick and use the 2 Pulley: start with a bobbin wheel screw and threaded cap parts.   Insert a piece of plastic straw into bobbin for the  Glue a skewer axle to the end of the screw bearing  Make a straw bearing  Place brad through the straw for the axle  Glue the bearing and the threaded cap to a popsicle  Open brad tabs and tape to the end of a skewer stick   Bobbin should spin freely  Spin your stick and the screw will move up and down! 3 Pulley line  Tie a bead around your string  Wrap it around bobbin for a counter-weight 4 Instrument  Construct an instrument (3D templates)  Tie to the other end of string for the load 5 Assembly 2 ADD DETAILS:  Slip your skewer and string through a straw Use your simple machine  Glue the straw to your box knowledge to add   Glue your skewer to straw to secure custom details.   Beware: don’t glue the string! A rotating lever mount and holder are interesting ideas. Have fun experimenting!

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