The team walked away with the overall excellence award after a microgravity experiment aboard an aircraft at the Canada Space Agency headquarters
As leaders in innovation, University of Waterloo students approach challenges differently in pursuit of solutions for a complex future.
Recently, a team of 11 undergraduate students at Waterloo participated in Canada’s first microgravity research competition for students, the Canadian Reduced Gravity Experiment Design Challenge (CAN-RGX), where they presented their research at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters in Longueuil, Quebec and won the Overall Excellence Award.
The competition offers the opportunity for post-secondary students to design, build and test a scientific payload aboard the National Research Council of Canada’s Falcon 20 — a twin-engine jet that has been modified for use in microgravity experiments in association with the Canadian Space Agency.
For their research, the Waterloo Space Soldering Team (WSST) successfully conducted a microgravity experiment aboard the aircraft to test whether solder joints can be improved using a centrifuge. A centrifuge is a device that spins at high speeds and uses centrifugal force to subject a specimen to a specified constant force, theorized to simulate Earth's gravity in microgravity environments.
Team in front of Canadarm replica at Canadian Space Agency Headquarters. Left to right: Ryan Mark, Ryan Chang, Lili Strong, Asmi Gujral, Devshi Perara, Mysha Hamid, Emilia Castillo, Megan Chang, Relja Vojvodic, Andre Arroyo-Cotier, Sameek Sharma, and Nathan Bellsmith
Under the guidance of Dr. Michael Mayer, the team hypothesized that soldering within a centrifuge would recreate Earth’s gravity conditions, resulting in solder joints with reduced porosity and improved quality. The research objective is to devise a method to improve the quality of in-space solder joints and allow replacements of electrical components in long-duration space missions.
This is crucial because electrical components on spacecraft for long-duration space missions degrade over time and require replacement; however, transporting replacement parts from Earth is extremely costly and logistically challenging. The ability to solder in space allows astronauts to repair and maintain these components on-site, extending the operational life of the spacecraft while leading to significant cost and mass savings during launches.
With many team members being inspired by the aerospace industry and materials, and electronics research, the WSST started out as a team of four when they pitched the initial experiment proposal in October 2023. However, after being selected to design, build and fly the experiment in less than a year, the team needed some help.
“We quickly expanded our team, got the approval from the Sedra Student Design Centre and began designing the project with advice and guidance from Drs. Mayer and Conrard Giresse Tetsassi Feugmo,” says Megan Chang, a fourth-year mechatronics engineering student and founding member of the WSST.
“For us, the design cycle was very short since most traditional design teams at Waterloo have one- to two-year design cycles,” adds Ryan Mark, another fourth-year mechatronics engineering student. “The shorter design cycles teams often use parts from the previous year so they do not need to reinvent the wheel. For us, the research and the engineering had to happen simultaneously.”
Despite these odds, the team developed a design that was flexible enough to adapt through multiple stages of testing. “In our case, our soldering apparatus had to melt, cool and solidify as many solder joints as possible within 20 seconds,” shares Devshi Perera, a fourth-year mechatronics engineering student. “This time constraint was important because each parabolic flight maneuver allows for only 20 to 30 seconds of microgravity.”
Soldering module that holds eight Kapton film; these are resistive heaters that become very hot in a short period of time. The solder samples are placed on these heaters, equidistant from the centre to achieve the same centripetal force. This module is placed in the centrifuge and spins.
The team shares that their biggest accomplishment was having successfully completed the experiment after several design iterations and many technical challenges. Across two flights and 16 parabolic maneuvers, the team obtained 790 samples that can now be analyzed for research, in an experiment that nobody has ever done before.
“At the start of the project, it was not clear if we would even be able to get 10 samples within the 20-second time frame,” Chang says. “A strong engineering project allowed for the collection of samples … and utilizing 16 parabolas from the flight allowed us to maximize the number of samples and deal with redundancy.”
The team’s next step will be to analyze the joint samples by using a microscope and image-processing software that will allow them to determine the void percentage inside each joint. Some joints will also undergo mechanical strength and bending tests as well as conductivity tests for additional analysis.
Other members of the interdisciplinary team include Mysha Hamid from the systems design engineering program; Lili Strong, Asmi Gujral, Nathan Bellsmith, and Relja Vojvodic, from mechatronics engineering; Andre Arroyo-Cotier from mechanical engineering; Sameek Sharma from nanotechnology and Emilia Castillo from arts and business.
The ultimate goal is to have their findings published and set precedence for conducting future microgravity experiments in this area.
