The Texas Space Grant Multi-University Multi-Disciplinary Design Project

This project's primary objective is the improvement of engineering design education through the sharing of resources among universities within Texas. Student teams at nine universities have cooperated on the design of a small unmanned lunar lander that produces oxygen from lunar soil. The project is called the Lunar Oxygen Verification Experiment (LOVE project). Students at participating universities have designed different subsystems for the spacecraft. The strategy is to improve engineering design education at the smaller engineering schools by sharing resources, by facilitating regular student-to-student communications, and by providing student mentors for the design teams at the schools that do not have space design experience. A secondary goal is to use the project output as a starting point for an academia-industry cooperative proposal for a real mission. Results are encouraging, but there have been a number of problems that required attention. To combat these problems, the project has established its own Web site, where progress reports are filed, questions are answered, design reference material is archived, etc. There are several megabytes of student-written reference information on spacecraft design available to students on the site. Project procedures and results are discussed and the effectiveness of sharing resources is assessed from the vantage points of the different universities. The effectiveness of graduate and undergraduate students as team mentors is discussed, and the effect on students of knowing that there will be an end-of-semester presentation is assessed.