Main Project Inspiration: Desktop Solar System Gadget

For my main project, I was thinking about creating a scale model solar system. I have always been intrigued by space through out my entire life. I also look up at the stars and wonder what else is out there, but who doesn’t do that. It amazes me how large everything is outside the realm of earth. Mainly just thinking about space is my inspiration for this whole project. I also want something that is nice to look and is worth having around.  Also, I wanted it to be able to fit on my desk at home so I can also see the relation of earth to all the other planets. My inital thought are to create a housing that has motors inside with poles of the planets coming out. These motors would rotate the planets at their respective speeds to one another.

After search the internet, there isn’t really anything out there like it. There are a lot of different takes on this idea, but none the way I was thinking. The closest I could find would be the watch shown below.

Solar System watch clock

http://www.techvalleycodecamp.com/2884614/solar-system-watch-clock.html

As of right now, this is a fairly good representation of what I want to do. However, I would like to make it a little bigger, maybe around ~6in or so. I was also thinking that the planets could be raised up at an angle to the top surface and rotate around. Anyway, this is the best idea I have for a project at the moment and I will see where it ends up in the end.

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2 Comments. Leave new

  • Kyle Aulwurm
    March 6, 2017 5:45 pm

    Really like this idea, you had some good variations on what you would do in class as well. Maybe you could even make the thing solar powered (pun intended). The size of the piece also seems nice as you would be able to display it pretty much anywhere.

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  • Shohei Hara
    March 5, 2017 1:05 pm

    This is a really cool idea. It reminds me of contraptions they used to have to illustrate the solar system before computers. Since each planet would be spinning at different speeds, would you be using multiple motors, or an intricate system of gears to get the right relative speed? Either way, it sounds like you’ll have to get different gearing for the different orbitals. I’m looking forward to seeing the final product!

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