Floating eggs to a safe landing

Grade 11 high school students invited to York University in Toronto on December 7 were given a space engineering task. They had one hour to build a landing system that would safely carry a raw egg to the floor of the rotunda of the university’s Vari Hall.

The students were given mystery kits to build the devices, and then let them go from several storeys up in the rotunda.

The event was part of Engineering Day at York, which is expanding its engineering programs. It recently received a $25-million grant from philanthropist Pierre Lassonde to create the Lassonde School of Engineering.

During the day, the students learned from Ben Quine, a professor of space engineering, about the challenges of designing NASA’s Phoenix lander, which touched down on Mars on May 25, 2008 carrying meteorological equipment. The Phoenix lander’s design and construction was led by York University scientists.