Inspiration: Our inspiration for The Resosphere was the Camp Fire from 2018. It started in the town only 20 minutes away from our high school and destroyed our beautiful forest. We wanted to find a way to help spark new growth and restore our forest to what it once was.
What it does: The Resosphere is a golf ball made of indigenous resources and filled with seeds of native plants. People can buy the golf ball and hit them into their forests. Due to weather and other factors, it will deteriorate and the seeds will be free to grow. This will help new growth and restore burnt forests into what they once were.
How we built it: To make The Resosphere, we designed one half of the ball with the Revolved Boss/Base tool on SolidWorks. It includes a pin sticking out and directly opposite is an opening made to fit and hold the pin, similar to a chain lock. We made these with the Extrude Boss/Base tool, Extruded Cut, and Section View. To complete The Resosphere, you make two of the parts, making them identical, place them together and twist so it closes.
Challenges we ran into: Our first prototype had a thin wall, because of this the pin and opening were too small. The pin broke off and the opening printed incorrectly. The biggest problem however was our tolerance and the pieces would not fit together. Our second prototype is much better and efficient but the tolerances are still not right.
Accomplishments that we're proud of: Our second prototype is much stronger and no pieces broke off. The pieces also fit together nicely.
What we learned: We learned that we need to have a smaller tolerance from the second design in order for the pieces to fit together more snuggly. We also learned that we needed to make the walls thicker and pieces bigger in order for everything to be strong.
What's next for The Resosphere: For our next design we will tighten up our tolerances and try to make a design that once twisted and closed, it will be locked. We are currently coming up with ways to do that, altering the pin and the opening.
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