Egg Lander

Egg lander

As one of the tasks in the course of space science, we were asked to make an egg Lander that will keep the egg safe when falling from the second story. The
materials we could use were twenty straws and a piece of newspaper.

Design

Our group came up with a model that looked like an accordion with four legs on each side. Our concept for designing model was that the legs would support the egg from hitting the ground and the accordion as well as the legs would absorb and transfer some of the impact due to the gravity forces. We first stuck two bent straws together with tape to make a square, which is the place to hold the egg, as shown in the picture. Then we connected them with newspapers to make two accordions. Since we had no clue about which side the Lander would fall off, we made legs all over the six sides around the square at the centre to keep the egg from touching the ground. The egg was put in the square, which was weaved compactly by the newspaper so that it wouldn’t fall out of the Lander. Finally, we connected the two accordions with four remaining straws. We also made streamers at the top to keep the Lander stable and fall in the direction we wanted it to be.

Result

Even Mr. Chung said that our model was well designed, so when it came to “bet marks for the model that you think is going to work”, lots of people actually betted for our group. But unfortunately, our egg cracked. The reason was that the four straws that connected the accordions took the most impact of hitting the ground. During the “flight”, these straws touched the egg accidently, which in turn transported the shock to the egg and caused the egg cracked. 

Improvement

To improve the model, I think we will have to separate the egg and supporting straws a bit so that the egg won’t be affected so much by the shock. It’s also important to keep the minimum straws possible touching the egg so that the least affect will be transferred to the egg. Also, I think the model should be bigger and having more spaces in between (but keep the egg from falling off the model as well). The legs are necessary to support the model and absorb part of the shock.