Lone Star College Receives Patent After Success in NASA’s Micro-g NExT Challenge
After NASA’s adoption of their zip-tie cutter, a tool designed to assist spacewalking astronauts, Lone Star College-CyFair in Houston has continued finding success through the agency’s Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams, or Micro-g NExT, experience. Recently, the college’s CRATER team received a patent for a dust-tolerant pivot device they designed during a 2020 Micro-g NExT challenge in support of NASA’s Artemis program.
Micro-g NExT is a yearly program that tasks colleges from across the country to design, build, and test a tool or device that addresses an authentic, current space exploration need. The “micro-g” element comes from these concepts being tested in a simulated microgravity environment — NASA Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL), better known as the behemoth pool where astronauts prepare for upcoming spacewalks.
The dust-tolerant pivot device’s patent, U.S. Patent US 11,219,995 Bl, denotes why this invention is so inherently useful: The inventors have found a new and improved pivoting assembly that overcomes the deficiencies of conventional geological and landscaping tools when, e.g., collecting lunar samples such as rocks, pebbles, and sand. The pivoting assembly has a high level of lunar dust tolerance, increasing the life, reliability, and durability of the pivoting assembly. When the pivoting assembly is incorporated in tools for collecting lunar samples, the tools are more effective than conventional geological and landscaping tools when used for such lunar sample collection.
The six-person CRATER team was advised by Dr. Yiheng Wang, a professor of engineering at Lone Star College. Two students in particular — Kary Meadows and Humberto Andres Leal Acosta — were named as inventors on the patent.
A major part of the process for the team was learning and practicing the engineering design model, which Wang said is exemplified within the team. Wang described the team’s process as being design-focused, including extensive research, prototyping their top design, and fine-tuning through multiple tests.
“When I started working with all my new student teams, I let them know from the beginning that if their designs showed potential, our college would consider sponsoring patent applications,” Wang said. “After [our team] successfully [virtually] directed tests of their design prototypes at NASA’s NBL in September 2020, our college decided to proceed with filing a patent application on Team CRATER’s design.”
Wang saw the potential for the device and understood that time was of the essence in applying for the patent. Previously, Team CERO of Lone Star College was not able to receive a patent for their zip-tie cutter, as they only started the application process a year after it had already been unveiled to the public, deeming it ineligible.
“We realized that this is something that can be useful outside of the space exploration market,” Leal Acosta said. “It can be used for agriculture, it [can] be used for mining, it can be used in an environment that isn’t space.”
Team CRATER applied for the patent after receiving support from Lone Star College and seeing its promise for real-world applications. The patent was officially received on Jan. 11, 2022, and shows the students’ creativity and hard work.
“It feels great — it feels like a sense of accomplishment [for] all the hours we put into it,” Leal Acosta said. “It feels like you’re a professional engineer now.”
The current Micro-g NExT challenge focuses on lunar spacewalks and includes 15 colleges and universities. Testing of the student-designed devices will run from June 6-8, 2022.
Watch as the dust-tolerant pivot device is tested in NASA Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.
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