Students design table for space station

HOUSTON The project was assigned to engineering classes at Clear Creek High School as part of the HUNCH program. High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware was developed to promote engineering in high schools. Several Houston area schools were asked to present designs for a table. Clear Creek engineering students came up with a reverse air hockey table and were awarded the design challenge.

The model presented to NASA engineers on April 16, 2008 included a fan for suction and the main filter which is an astronaut sock. The sock is the right type of filter material and there are plenty of them already on the Space Station. The table top is perforated and continuous for easy cleaning and the bottom can be removed. The system will filter and collect crumbs and other floating material that may become floating debris and cause problems to hardware in a Zero Gravity environment.

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