Cover Image for Interview: Learning From Geckos For Space With Capella Kerst

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Tech

Interview: Learning From Geckos For Space With Capella Kerst

Small Steps & Giant Leaps Events

Zoom

Past Event

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About Event

(photo credit Pete Orlup

Agenda

1:00pm to 2:30pm PST

Mixer/discussion/introductions (not recorded/broadcast)

2:30pm to 3:30pm PST

Special speaker

Description

Geckos can climb glass because millions of microscopic hairs on their feet grip surfaces through tiny molecular forces, no glue required. Turning that trick into a manufacturable material is one of the harder problems in advanced adhesives, and it could change how we grip, hold, and assemble things both on Earth and in space.

We sit down with Dr. Capella Kerst, who holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford along with degrees from UC Berkeley and UCLA, and holds the patents for mass manufacturing geCKo Materials’ gecko-inspired dry adhesive. Getting a material like this out of the lab and onto a production line is its own engineering challenge, and she is the person who solved it.

We will get into how gecko-inspired dry adhesives actually work, why gripping and grasping in a vacuum demands something better than glue or suction, and where this technology fits in robotic assembly, on-orbit servicing, and capturing debris. We will also dig into the harder-than-it-sounds problem of scaling an advanced material to mass production.

Come with your questions and your data. This is a conversation about how the future gets a grip.

Speaker(s)

Capella Kerst: Capella Kerst holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, along with degrees from UC Berkeley and UCLA. She is the inventor behind the mass manufacturing of geCKo Materials’ gecko-inspired dry adhesive and holds the patents for the process.
- https://www.geckomaterials.com/

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