Science Daily - Gecko grippers get a microgravity test flight
Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are working on adhesive gripping tools that could grapple objects such as orbital debris or defunct satellites that would otherwise be hard to handle.
The gecko gripper project was selected for a test flight through the Flight Opportunities Program of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. As a test, researchers used the grippers in brief periods of weightlessness aboard NASA's C-9B parabolic flight aircraft in August.
"Orbital debris is a serious risk to spacecraft, including the International Space Station," said Aaron Parness, a JPL robotics researcher who is the principal investigator for the grippers. "This is definitely a problem we're going to have to deal with. Our system might one day contribute to a solution."
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From NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:
A piece of tape can only be used a few times before the adhesion wears off and it can no longer hold two surfaces together. But researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are working on the ultimate system of stickiness, inspired by geckos. Thanks to tiny hairs on the bottom of geckos' feet, these lizards can cling to walls with ease, and their stickiness doesn't wear off with repeated usage. JPL engineer Aaron Parness and colleagues used that concept to create a material with synthetic hairs that are much thinner than a human hair. When a force is applied to make the tiny hairs bend, that makes the material stick to a desired surface.
"This is how the gecko does it, by weighting its feet," Parness said. Behind this phenomenon is a concept called van der Waals forces. A slight electrical field is created because electrons orbiting the nuclei of atoms are not evenly spaced, so there are positive and negative sides to a neutral molecule. The positively charged part of a molecule attracts the negatively charged part of its neighbor, resulting in "stickiness." Even in extreme temperature, pressure and radiation conditions, these forces persist.
"The grippers don't leave any residue and don't require a mating surface on the wall the way Velcro would," Parness said. The newest generation of grippers can support more than 150 Newtons of force, the equivalent of 35 pounds (16 kilograms).
Previously: Gecko Grippers get a Microgravity Test Flight
Original Submission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 26 2014, @09:36AM
With GEICO!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 26 2014, @09:40AM
Have you even tried traveling farther than orbit, this century?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 26 2014, @11:32AM
Ain't no people out in space to sell useless shit to, dude. Free market capitalistism says sell more shit to dumbfucks, and all the dumb fuckers are on Earth.