My finished Timeline

At last!

My finished timeline, Evolution of the Space Suit, is now live at tiki-toki.com. 

I trace the evolution of the space suit, from its beginnings with the Mercury suit (1959) to the most recent NASA prototype, the Z-1, which you enter from behind through the helmet.

The timeline shows how human ingenuity overcame the problems of space travel one development at a time.

It is remarkable to see the early space suits, which look like tin foil with a hose attached. The poor astronauts! Amazingly, astronauts successfully went into space with these suits and returned home (well, at least some of them). 

My own concept for a deep space suit takes into account these developments and brings them further to try solve the problem of how to cope with lack of pressure in deep space. My suit is (obviously) not on the timeline because it is still an idea.

A screenshot of my Timeline

Link: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/128979/Evolution-of-the-space-suit/#vars!date=1967-11-16_02:41:27!

Conference with my uncle- Change of plans

Just today I had a conference call with my uncle Jorge who is an engineer for NASA. We did a share screen on Skype so he could see my progress on my space suit. He helped me a lot and I really appreciate all the advice he's given me.

A change of plans has happened, I will not be able to finish the space suit in its entirety. Since solid works is such a difficult program to master. I'm having trouble with just making the helmet. This is why, even for a solid works professional, making a complete space suit would take around half a year. Since I have school, tests and a lot of studying to do I have even less time. I'm also a novice to solid works so trying to make a complete spacesuit is currently out of my reach. This is why I will be able to only finish the helmet. I will also try to make an engineering sketch of what I wanted the suit to look like.

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Number 5

Number 6

Number 7

Number 8

Number 9

Number 10

What we innovations we need to go into Deep Space

I will be sharing some interesting information I found out about the new technology which would be needed to go into deep space. This information I find useful since their are some ideas which I was thinking about integrating into my suit. I will be numbering them from 10 to 1, not in any specific order they're just listed that way.

Credit goes to: http://science.discovery.com/aliens-space/10-technology-innovations-needed-for-deep-space-exploration.htm

A rendering from Solid Works

A teaser model

This is one of my landmark achievements for solid works, making something awesome. It took me a while to grasp the basics of it but now I can create models like this. Its a sphere with a red reflective surface, I added a light reference to give it a shine on a specific side. Took me 10 minutes to fully render it.

3rd Meeting

Well I had my third meeting with Miss Fonseca today, we discussed the current state of my investigation. I Told her about the timeline I was doing and she seemed to like the Idea. We also talked about the future state of my project and my end project. She thinks it will be almost impossible to get a full 3D model of the suit. But I have a good idea about what the suit looks like, so drawing out the suit will be easy. But I have not yet mastered Solid Works so I have to Practice alot.

Timeline

Well since I've had a lot of spare time during this vacation I decided to make a timeline. The timeline shows how space suits have evolved (mostly NASA ones) throughout time, from modified jet suits to specific designs meant for exploration and mobility. The timeline is not yet complete, but when it is I shall post a link to the website It's on.

Also I have been toying around with Solid Works to get used to it. It's very complex compared to other 3D modeling programs  so it's a good idea to know the basics. 

Second meeting and Solid Works

I had my second meeting a few days ago with my supervisor Miss Fonseca. I brought in all of my materials including my Personal Project binder. It was quite short, about two minutes. I showed her what I have been doing on the PP guide book and talked to her about my blog as well.

I also got Solid Works today which is the program i'm going to use to design the suit on. It's quite complex, so during the next month i'm just going to get used to it and it's mechanics.

First Meeting

I had my first meeting with my Personal Project tutor Ms Fonseca yesterday, it wasn't long just about 2 minutes to be exact. I told her all about my project and what I wanted to do. She understood what I wanted to do which reassures me.

My Choice Beyond the Stars

Well after mulling it over, I finally came to the decision that I am going to pick the suit design for deep space. I originally intended it to be an engineering suit but after a while I felt that it should be more specific.

This will not only be a space suit but one for deep space exploration, so it needs to be more advanced, not an air filled blimp like the ones we have nowadays.

The way I decided on this was reading about where humans are going to go to in space next. There is a lot of discussion going on about the direction of space exploration. Some groups want to go to Mars, others the moon and still others beyond all that into deep space. However if astronauts go into deep space, countless problems will pop up with the old space suits.

It's a brand new area of engineering exploration and I want to be a part of it.

I'm going to investigate these new ideas, create my own concept for a deep space suit and model it on Solid Works.

Artists depiction of a Deep Space suit idea

Picking a Theme

At the end of 8th grade, the staff at our school told us that we would be doing a Personal Project in 9th grade, on a topic of our choice.

At first, I thought it would be stressful to work on a big project whilst also completing all of my other coursework. However, when they told us we would have seven months to complete it, at regular intervals, I began to feel more confident.

The biggest decision I have to make is choosing a theme.

I have two main ideas in mind: something to do with marine biology or a topic related to engineering.

I have been interested in marine biology since I was a little kid living in Florida. I've gone snorkeling in the Florida Keys and would spend time studying creatures in tide pools. This past summer my family and I went to the Dominican Republic to go whale watching in Samana Peninsula. I made a video about the Humpbacks of Samana and posted it on YouTube this month.

The other theme I am seriously interested in is engineering. I have always liked building things -- first with my Lego blocks and then with computer programs like Minecraft.

This summer, I started thinking about developing a design for a multi-purpose suit that would be heat- and fire-proof and could be used for arctic and space exploration. I spent a lot of hours writing down and drawing my ideas.

Here are some notes I made on a whiteboard in my room in January:

So the question for me for my MYP Personal Project is:

Will I choose marine biology or engineering?

Welcome

This is going to be my Progress blog for my Personal Project for the MYP.

I'm going describe my process of picking a topic for my personal project, investigating and developing it.

I'm kind of eager to start it. So here I go!!!