We are considering a "perimeter frame" design to mount the equipment, as opposed to using a Styrofoam cooler. The rationale is that a cooler can bounce and turn over quite easily on landing. The SPOT GPS tracker needs to be facing up (towards the satellites) to transmit effectively- if it gets flipped over, we might have trouble receiving the tracking signal. A square or triangular frame (about 36"-40" per side) would give a more stable platform. The downside is less protection for the equipment.
During our research for frame materials (looking at wood, carbon fiber, PVC, etc.), we stumbled across a company that builds bicycle frames from bamboo:
http://www.calfeedesign.com/products/bamboo/
Let's see:
- Light weight
- Very strong
- More eco friendly than Styrofoam
- FREE
How will it do in space? Not sure as we have found no evidence of bamboo ever going there. Only one way to find out!
Here's our first experiment with joining 2 pieces using epoxy and twine (destructive testing to follow):
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