Title, Date, Location:
Graduate Systems Engineer / Assembly, Test and Integration Engineer
Aug. 2024 - Present
Boulder, CO.
Mission Background:
As a part of the MagQuest competition hosted by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), competitors are to design a small satellite to aid in the collection of Earth Magnetic field data to contribute to the World Magnetic Model (WMM). COSMO, designed by CU Boulder with collaborators from LASP, is one of the three final competitors to launch their CubeSats into orbit.
My Responsibilities:
During my time on COSMO, I've been working as a Systems Engineer. To date, I've broadly supported assembly, test and integration of flight hardware, software refactoring and data processing, as well as creating and maintaining supporting documentation. I work alongside students, professional engineers, and SMEs at CU Boulder, LASP, and collaborators at NASA. Below is a more in-depth list of my tasks to date:
Vectorized Rubidium Magnetometer (VRuM) - Assembly and Test
Assisted with the flight assembly of the VRuM, as well as optimization efforts of the assembly procedure.
Participated in a testing campaign at NASA Goddard in their 40ft Braunbek Coil Facility to better characterize the VRuM and the effects of the spacecraft subsystems on VRuM measurements.
Assisted with the "End of Boom" assembly, which included handling of the optical bench, start trackers, and the VRuM.
Participated in multiple indoor and outdoor tests, which involved the transport of the flight VRuM.
Solar Panel Arrays - Assembly and Test
Assisted with assembly of four - 6U Solar panels, each with 17 cells.
The assembly procedure ranged from soldering components to blank PCBs, cutting adhesives, placing cells, and final checkouts before flight.
Participated in testing of all solar panels for COSMO, as well as other LASP missions (SunCET, DYNAGLO).
Testing involved multiple outdoor tests to measure performance, and also indoor glow tests to locate and determine severity of any defects. in the cells.
VRuM Ground Support Graphical User Interface (GUI) - Feature Adding and Refactoring
Added multiple features to the GUI used for ground-based testing and verification of the spacecraft Instrument
Features include the ability to swap between Big and Little Endian within the data processing pipeline, and the ability to swap serial communication inputs from external USB to LASP-specific software.
Refactored the internal data structure from an ordered list to a Python-based object-oriented class to facilitate easier data management
Boom Extension and Cable Management System - Design, Assembly and Test
Created a mock-up of the spacecraft boom extension geometry to perform repeated tests and iterations of current deployment designs
Contributed designs and modifications to existing deployment geometry based on previous tests
Assisted with test deployment and retraction of the flight boom.
Interface Control Documentation (ICD) - Creation and Revision
Worked with the primary instrument scientist and lead mechanical engineer to create ICDs for critical parts of the spacecraft, such as interfaces with the VRuM, the Boom, and high-level wiring diagrams.
Spacecraft Environmental Testing - Monitoring
Thermal Vacuum Chamber (TVAC) Monitoring
