Dominic Wilcox

I loved the idea of something that could stop your food floating around in space and wanted to make a prototype to show Brigitte's great idea off. I had a good chat with her on skype and got some excellent feedback on my plans for making of her idea.

After a bit of thinking about making it look like the food is floating, I bought a rotating display motor and hid it inside the box. This would great the turning movement.

I bought a food tray dome and used a laser cutter to cut a hole in the top and also create a yellow lid to match the drawing.

For the food I bought some fake buns and doughnuts but needed to work out how to make them appear to float. I bought some clear acrylic rods from a model shop and made a sort of tree structure to hold up the food. I cut holes into the food and glued them onto the clear sticks. 

The whole thing needs to be transported and packed up safely so I made the food and support sticks removable by sticking a magnet on the bottom and a bit of metal onto the motor. In this way you can stand the structure up through a hole in the box to set it up.

I was very happy with the way it finished and with the food slowly rotating it gives a good effect of no gravity floating.

Brigitte's idea was excellent and I'm sure CSA will be impressed, it was a pleasure to help make her idea come to life.

I thought that Brooke's Moon Coaster was a great way to get around the moon while also having lots of fun. I had a great skype chat with Brooke about her idea and got some excellent feedback on the making. Although I couldn't make a full size coaster, as my room isn't big enough, I wanted to make a good looking model of it.

After some thought about the size and how it might work I bought a wood box and joined the lid to the base to create a L shaped base. I wanted to make the moon rotate so bought some little pulleys and brass rods and experimented with different elastic and rubber bands to work out how to turn a handle at the front of the base and rotate the moon slowly. 

Once I'd got the mechanism working well I bought a polystyrene ball and some plaster material that I used to create a moon texture. I cut out tiny circles from paper and stuck them on the ball to create craters by covering them in the wet plater. I used a brush to 'stipple' the plaster to make a moon surface.

For the roller coaster I went to the model shop and bought some plastic strips that I could cut and bend easily and added some plastic cut for the legs. The cart again was made from a sheet of plastic that I cut with a scalpel and made into the box. I bought some tiny sitting people and added blobby paint to make them look like they are wearing a space suit.

I experimented with painting the moon to get the best effect, it is a mixture of browns and yellows, I tried to let the darker colours get into the cracks and crevices.

Finally I painted the base black and hand painted starts onto it. I'm happy with the finish, it was a lovely project to work on and a great idea by Brooke.