NASA OPSPARC

NASA OPSPARC 2020

NASA’s ​OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Promotion and Research Challenge (OPSPARC)

I participated in this challenge hosted by NASA’s OPTIMUS PRIME, which asks students to use their imagination and creativity to identify NASA Spinoff Technology in our world and test their skills at changing a NASA technology into something that will make our world a better place.

Duration : 000,2019 – 000,2019

Team : Mirue Kang, Jiwoo You, John Woo, Sandy Kang

Problem Statement

Current solutions for healing wounds are inefficient and take a long time to heal. Therefore, to make healing wounds more efficient, heat regulation of the wound needs to take place, and our solution makes for a more feasible and accessible solution compared to current solutions for healing severe wounds.

Criteria and Constraints

Which technology/spinoff are you re-designing for your new spinoff? How does the original technology or spinoff work?

Phase change materials that are used in space gloves & spacesuits is the technology used to re-design our spinoff. The original technology absorbs heat and releases heat. When an object goes down to a designated temperature, the phase-changing materials produce a warming effect which is why it would be effective to use as a bandage.

What criteria and constraints should be considered as you design the spinoff?

Criteria and constraints that should be considered as we design the spinoff is the feasibility, size, thickness, and the design of the bandaid so that it is applicable on most wounds. The product has to be formulated and made so that it is comfortable and efficient for the patient/consumer to use.

What criteria will be the most difficult to meet? Why?

The criteria that will be the most difficult to meet is cost, resources, and userbility. Having greater cost and resources will allow for the mass production of successful, working bandages. The other issue is the desirability as well as the accessibility and availability to reach a larger population with widespread applications.

Brainstorm Possible Solutions

What have others done to solve the problem?

There are products that are quite similar to the basic functionality of our product which includes pain relieving pathes such as those from Tiger Balm and Salonpas.

Generate new ideas for solutions

The PCM Bandage will use

For our prototype, we plan to place pain relieving patches on the bottom of our bandages, as a means to substitute for our PCMs. We can then