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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAfter seeing the Facebook group post, Ashari immediately messaged other engineering students about the competition. The group, which eventually comprised six UC San Diego students, began brainstorming potential experiments they could enter into the competition. \u201cWe have a home brewer on our team who likes to brew his own beer,\u201d she said. \u201cIn San Diego, home brewing is a huge culture. As a joke, he said, \u2018How about we brew beer on the moon?\u2019 And at first we all started laughing, but then we went silent because we realized there would actually be a practical application for that kind of experiment.\u201d Because many foods and pharmaceuticals involve the use of yeast, brewing beer on the moon would give scientists key insights into the viability of yeast in a lunar gravity environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team, which calls itself \u201cTeam Original Gravity,\u201d started by writing what\u2019s called a concept note, which describes the experiment, and sent it to TeamIndus. Shortly afterward, they learned that, out of 3,000 applications, they were one of 25 finalists who would be tasked with building out the instrumentation of their experiments and presenting their project in Bangalore, India.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So Team Original Gravity got to work. Funded by a grant from Qualcomm, they began designing and engineering prototypes of their moon brewer. There were certainly a number of obstacles they needed overcome before making such an instrument work. \u201cOur biggest challenge was coming up with our valve design,\u201d said Ashari. \u201cWe have a valve between two chambers to separate the wort and the yeast, and basically once the valve opens, the yeast and the wort mix, and the yeast consumes the sugars and then the CO2 will come out, which is beer.\u201d While the moon\u2019s lower gravity would have a minimal impact, the team was most worried about the wide variation in temperatures the yeast would be subjected to. \u201cWe had to calculate the ideal ratio of food to canister volume such that the beer we\u2019d incorporate would have the perfect amount of carbonation, which would reduce the possibility of exploding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Team Original Gravity turned to Xometry to complete the prototyping process. \u201cWe used it to fabricate our canister design out of nylon and plated it with copper and nickel to ensure air tightness,\u201d said Ashari. \u201cIn school we\u2019ve all learned how to use 3D printing, but we always use plastics or acrylics, basic materials. Working with Xometry really expanded our horizons when it came to using materials like nylon, copper plating, and nickel. These are materials we\u2019d never worked with before, and that was really cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On March 13th, Team Original Gravity embarked on a flight to Bangalore, India, where they presented their cannister prototype to TeamIndus, and though they\u00a0weren\u2019t among those officially chosen for the lunar mission, the competition provided valuable experience the team can use in their post-college career. \u201cI graduate in June 2017, and my plans are to work at a space exploration company to develop and design biomedical devices for space exploration,\u201d said Ashari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We on the Xometry team were curious about one key detail: if Team Original Gravity had been chosen to brew beer on the moon, would they have been allowed to taste it afterward? \u201cUnfortunately, we wouldn\u2019t have been able to taste the beer we created, because it wouldn\u2019t have come back to Earth,\u201d replied Ashari. But given the current craft beer obsession sweeping across the country, she could see why there\u2019d be high demand for such a brew. \u201cCan you imagine imported beer from the moon?\u201d she asked, laughing. \u201cWe could probably charge a fortune!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Xometry’s 3D Printing capabilities helped a group of engineering students prototype an apparatus to make beer in space!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":60271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,712],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-stories","category-aerospace"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n