For my final capstone project at the University of Washington Bothell, I worked with a team of 5 to solve the difficulties of getting in and out of a lunar lander. The ladder present on the original Apollo missions was tall, and in the clumsy space suits proved difficult to navigate. For future missisons NASA is looking to have an elevator type system to lift and lower astronauts to and from the lunar surface. 

Our group settled on a winch and platform design that uses a motor and gearbox to wind and unwind a cable to raise and lower a platform. The cable is supported by an extending balcony, and the platform is guided by a rigid ladder that also functions as a backup. My contribution was the gearbox and whinch design as well as motor specifications. We built a full scale prototype using low cost materials.