Background
The team that developed the landing system for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover tests the deployment of an early parachute design in October 2007 inside the world's largest wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center. In this image, two engineers are looking at the parachute, which holds more air than a 280-square-meter house and is designed to survive loads in excess of 36,000 kilograms.
When NASA lands a spacecraft on another planet or object in our solar system, it is important to have a soft landing so the spacecraft is not damaged on impact. When humans are on board, it's even more important to have a soft landing. The larger and more massive the spacecraft, the more difficult it is to achieve a soft landing.
The Challenge
Use recycle materials to create a parachute as protection for an egg to enable it to survive being dropped from a certain height (e.g. 2 metres). The goal is to land the egg as slowly and softly as possible.
Step 1. Get Inspired
Introduce the activity by showing images of NASA parachutes and showing the LDSD video below.
Discuss how a parachute works. The parachute catches air and creates drag, slowing the falling of an object (payload).
Discuss how to measure the speed of a falling object.
(For younger children, speed can mean the total time it takes for a parachute to land from a set height)
Step 2. Materials
Plastic bags (different types and thickness, some big rubbish bags would also be useful)
Recyclable materials (such as plastic drink bottle, cups, straws, newspapers, cupboard, plastic containers, etc.)
1 egg
1 zip-lock plastic bag or freeze bag (for the egg)
30 cm sticky tape
30 cm string
ruler and other measuring tools (weighing scale)
scissors
stopwatch (or just use the smartphone app)
Step 3: Sketch and Design
Draw your designs before making it. You might want to draw a few different designs and discuss which one that might work the best.
Step 4. Build your parachute
Consider the properties of the available materials. discuss which materials you should use, given the nature of the challenge.
Construct a parachute to hang on the zip-lock bag to enable an egg to survive a 2-metre drop (nothing should be inside the zip-lock bag except the egg).
(For older children, discuss how you can identify and determine the rate of descending, and what variables you will be investigating to test the effect of each variable on how fast a parachute will descend, e.g. canopy size, shape of the canopy, length of the strings).
Step 5. Test your parachute!
Record your test results. What does your result show? Can you modify your parachute to improve the results?
Your response
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