A team of 17 University of Waterloo students and recent alumni was one of four selected for the Canadian Reduced Gravity Experiment Design Challenge, run by SEDS Canada with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Canadian Space Agency. In Ottawa, four members flew aboard an aircraft whose parabolas produce about 20 seconds of weightlessness.
The problem they want to solve: in microgravity, solder traps gas bubbles, which weakens electrical joints. The team’s answer is to solder inside a centrifuge that creates a gravity-like force. Over 16 parabolas, the device, which uses two miniature irons, produced 35 samples.
The samples will now be examined with CT scanning and microscopes and compared with joints made on Earth. Repairing electronics in space could reduce reliance on costly resupply missions. “Being weightless and floating through the aircraft was the most memorable moment of my engineering degree yet,” said student Shamanthi Rajagopal.
