Mechanical Systems Engineering for Optical Payloads
This is a presentation on Mechanical Systems Engineering for Optical Payloads.
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SMAP Instrument Mechanical System Engineering
The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, scheduled for launch by the end of 2014, is being developed to measure the soil moisture and soil freeze/thaw state on a global scale over a three-year period. The accuracy, resolution, and global coverage of SMAP measurements are invaluable across many science and applications disciplines including hydrology, climate, carbon cycle, and the meteorological, environment, and ecology applications communities. The SMAP observatory is composed of a despun bus and a spinning instrument platform that includes both a deployable 6 meter aperture low structural frequency Astromesh reflector and a spin control system. The instrument section has engendered challenging mechanical system issues associated with the antenna deployment, flexible antenna pointing in the context of a multitude of disturbances, spun section mass properties, spin control system development, and overall integration with the flight system on both mechanical and control system levels. Moreover, the multitude of organizations involved, including two major vendors providing the spin subsystem and reflector boom assembly plus the flight system mechanical and guidance, navigation, and control teams, has led to several unique system engineering challenges. Capturing the key physics associated with the function of the flight system has been challenging due to the many different domains that are applicable. Key interfaces and operational concepts have led to complex negotiations because of the large number of organizations that integrate with the instrument mechanical system. Additionally, the verification and validation concerns associated with the mechanical system have had required far-reaching involvement from both the flight system and other subsystems. The SMAP instrument mechanical systems engineering issues and their solutions are described in this paper.
mechanical systems.↗
Mechanical & System Engineering Challenges Associated with the Development of the ChemCam Instrument for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory
No abstract prepared.
42 ENGINEERING↗
Solar Mesosphere Explorer optical-mechanical systems engineering
Mission overview of the Solar Mesosphere Explorer is presented along with design analysis and summaries of results. The Solar Mesosphere Explorer is a spin stabilized satellite carrying a complement of four Ebert-Fastie spectrometers and a four-channel Mersenne radiometer. Description of the spectrometer is given including a telescope and its aberrations. The radiometer is also described with consideration given to isothermal and thermal design, a Winston paraboloid, and optical tolerances. These five instruments are for measuring the earth's ozone density and distribution and providing quantitative data about those processes which govern the formation and destruction of ozone.
Gause, K. A.↗
Mars Equipment Transport System
Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Project 1 (ME4182) is a part of the NASA/University Advanced Design Program. Under this program, NASA allocates money and resources to students to be used in design work for a specified topic. The current topic is the exploration and colonization of Mars. The specific area in which we are to work is the transportation of the modules in which astronauts will live while on Mars. NASA is concerned about the weight of the module transferring system, as the shipping cost to Mars is quite expensive. NASA has specified that the weight of the system is to be minimized in order to reduce the shipping costs.
Sorrells, Cindy↗
Recovery Act: Hydroelectric Facility Improvement Project - Replacement of Current Mechanical Seal System with Rope Packing System
On January 27, 2010 the City of North Little Rock, Arkansas received notification of the awarding of a Department of Energy (DOE) grant totaling $450,000 in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) under the Project Title: Recovery Act: Hydroelectric Facility Improvement Project – Automated Intake Clearing Equipment and Materials Management. The purpose of the grant was for improvements to be made at the City’s hydroelectric generating facility located on the Arkansas River. Improvements were to be made through the installation of an intake maintenance device (IMD) and the purchase of a large capacity wood grinder. The wood grinder was purchased in order to receive the tree limbs, tree trunks, and other organic debris that collects at the intake of the plant during high flow. The wood grinder eliminates the periodic burning of the waste material that is cleared from the intake and reduces any additional air pollution to the area. The resulting organic mulch has been made available to the public at no charge. Design discussion and planning began immediately and the wood grinder was purchased in July of 2010 and immediately put to work mulching debris that was gathered regularly from the intake of the facility. The mulch is currently available to the public for free. A large majority of the design process was spent in discussion with the Corps of Engineers to obtain approval for drawings, documents, and permits that were required in order to make changes to the structure of the powerhouse. In April of 2011, the City’s Project Engineer, who had overseen the application, resigned and left the City’s employ. A new Systems Mechanical Engineer was hired and tasked with overseeing the project. The transfer of responsibility led to a re-examination of the original assumptions and research upon which the grant proposal was based. At that point, the project went under review and a trip was booked for July 2011 to visit facilities that currently had an IMD installed. This further study of facilities revealed that the implementation of the project as originally described, while proving the benefits described in the original grant application, would likely intensify sand intake. Increased sand intake would lead to an increase in required shutdowns for maintenance and more rapid depreciation of key equipment which would result in a loss of generation capacity. A better solution to the problem, one that continued to meet the criteria for the original grant and ARRA standards, was developed. A supporting day trip was planned to visit other facilities located on the Arkansas River to determine how they were coping with the same strong amounts of sand, silt, and debris. Upon returning from the trip to other Arkansas River facilities it was extremely clear what direction to go in order to most efficiently address the issue of generator capacity and efficiency. Of the plants visited on the Arkansas River, every one of them was running what is called a rope packing shaft sealing system as opposed to mechanical shaft seals, which the facility was running. Rope packing is a time proven sealing method that has been around for centuries. It has proved to perform very well in dirty water situations just like that of the Arkansas River. In April of 2012 a scope change proposal was submitted to the DOE for approval. In August of 2012 the City received word that the change of scope had been approved. Plans were immediately set in motion to begin the conversion from mechanical seals to a packing box at the facility. Contractors arrived on October 1st, 2012 and the project team began unwatering the unit for disassembly. The seal conversion was completed on February 29th, 2013 with start-up of the unit. Further testing and adjusting was done throughout the first two weeks of March.
13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
Electroless Deposition of Palladium on Macroscopic 3D-Printed Polymers with Dense Microlattice Architectures for Development of Multifunctional Composite Materials
A simple procedure has been developed to create palladium (Pd) films on the surface of several common polymers used in commercial fused deposition modeling (FDM) and stereolithography (SLA) based three-dimensional (3D) printing by an electroless deposition process. The procedure can be performed at room temperature, with equipment less expensive than many 3D printers, and occurs rapidly enough to achieve full coverage of the film within a few minutes. 3D substrates composed of dense logpile or cubic lattices with part sizes in the mm to cm range, and feature sizes as small as 150 μm were designed and printed using commercially available 3D printers. The deposition procedure was successfully adapted to show full coverage in the lattice substrates. As a result, the ability to design, print, and metallize highly ordered three-dimensional microscale structures could accelerate development of a range of optimized chemical and mechanical engineering systems.
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Orbit Transfer Vehicle (OTV) advanced expander cycle engine point design study. Volume 2: Study results
Detailed computer models of the engine were developed to predict both the steady state and transient operation of the engine system. Mechanical design layout drawings were prepared for the following components: thrust chamber and nozzle; extendible nozzle actuating mechanism and seal; LOX turbopump and boost pump; hydrogen turbopump and boost pump; and the propellant control valves. The necessary heat transfer, stress, fluid flow, dynamic, and performance analyses were performed to support the mechanical design.
Source record↗
Ames Engineering Directorate
The Ames Engineering Directorate is the principal engineering organization supporting aerospace systems and spaceflight projects at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. The Directorate supports all phases of engineering and project management for flight and mission projects-from R&D to Close-out-by leveraging the capabilities of multiple divisions and facilities.The Mission Design Center (MDC) has full end-to-end mission design capability with sophisticated analysis and simulation tools in a collaborative concurrent design environment. Services include concept maturity level (CML) maturation, spacecraft design and trades, scientific instruments selection, feasibility assessments, and proposal support and partnerships. The Engineering Systems Division provides robust project management support as well as systems engineering, mechanical and electrical analysis and design, technical authority and project integration support to a variety of programs and projects across NASA centers. The Applied Manufacturing Division turns abstract ideas into tangible hardware for aeronautics, spaceflight and science applications, specializing in fabrication methods and management of complex fabrication projects. The Engineering Evaluation Lab (EEL) provides full satellite or payload environmental testing services including vibration, temperature, humidity, immersion, pressure/altitude, vacuum, high G centrifuge, shock impact testing and the Flight Processing Center (FPC), which includes cleanrooms, bonded stores and flight preparation resources. The Multi-Mission Operations Center (MMOC) is composed of the facilities, networks, IT equipment, software and support services needed by flight projects to effectively and efficiently perform all mission functions, including planning, scheduling, command, telemetry processing and science analysis.
Small Satellites↗
OSIRIS-REx Visible And Infrared Spectrometer - OVIRS
Goddard Space Flight Center: Overall Instrument Responsibility; Instrument Scientist and Deputy Instrument Scientist; Management Systems Engineering; Mechanical Hardware; Harness Assemblies; SIDECAR Assembly Code; OVIRS Integration and Environmental Qualification; OVIRS Performance Testing, Calibration and Characterization.
OSIRIS-REx↗
Itegrated Test and Evaluation of a 4-Bed Molecular Sieve (4BMS) Carbon Dioxide Removtal System (CDRA), Mechanical Compressor Engineering Development Unit (EDU), and Sabitier Engineering Development Unit (EDU)
Currently on the International Space Station s (ISS) U.S. Segment, carbon dioxide (CO2) scrubbed from the cabin by a 4-Bed Molecular Sieve (4BMS) Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) is vented overboard as a waste product. Likewise, the product hydrogen (H2) that will be generated by the Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) planned for installation will also be vented. A flight experiment has been proposed that will take the waste CO2 removed from the cabin, and via the catalytic Sabatier process, reduce it with waste H2 to generate water and methane. The water produced may provide cost and logistics savings for ISS by reducing the amount of water periodically re-supplied to orbit. To make this concept viable, a mechanical piston compressor and accumulator were developed for collecting and storing the CO2 from the CDRA. The compressor, accumulator and Sabatier system would be packaged together as one unit and referred to as the Carbon Dioxide Reduction Assembly (CRA). Testing was required to evaluate the performance of a 4BMS CDRA, compressor, accumulator, and Sabatier performance along with their operating rules when integrated together. This had been numerically modeled and simulated; however, testing was necessary to verify the results from the engineering analyses. Testing also allowed a better understanding of the practical inefficiencies and control issues involved in a fully integrated system versus the theoretical ideals in the model. This paper presents and discusses the results of an integrated engineering development unit test.
Knox, James C.↗
Small Engine Component Technology (SECT) study
Small advanced (450 to 850 pounds thrust, 2002 to 3781 N) gas turbine engines were studied for a subsonic strategic cruise missile application, using projected year 2000 technology. An aircraft, mission characteristics, and baseline (state-of-the-art) engine were defined to evaluate technology benefits. Engine performance and configuration analyses were performed for two and three spool turbofan and propfan engine concepts. Mission and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analyses were performed in which the candidate engines were compared to the baseline engines over a prescribed mission. The advanced technology engines reduced system LCC up to 41 percent relative to the baseline engine. Critical aerodynamic, materials, and mechanical systems turbine engine technologies were identified and program plans were defined for each identified critical technology.
Singh, B.↗
Retaining Systems Engineering Model Meaning Through Transformation: Demo 2
Digital engineering strategies typically assume that digital engineering models interoperate seamlessly across the multiple different engineering modeling software applications involved, such as model- based systems engineering (MBSE), mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD), electrical computer-aided design (ECAD), and other engineering modeling applications. The presumption is that the data schema in these modeling software applications are structured in the familiar flat- tabular schema like any other software application. Engineering domain-specific applications (e.g., systems, mechanical, electrical, simulation) are typically designed to solve domain-specific problems, necessarily excluding explicit representations of non-domain information to help the engineer focus on the domain problems (system definition, design, simulation). Such exclusions become problematic in inter-domain information exchange. The obvious assumptions of one domain might not be so obvious to experts in another domain. Ambiguity in domain-specific language can erode the ability to enable different domain modeling applications to interoperate, unless the underlying language is understood and used as the basis for translation from one application to another. The engineering modeling software application industry has struggled for decades to enable these applications to interoperate. Industry standards have been developed, but they have not unified the industry. Why is this? The authors assert that the industry has relied on traditional database integration methods. The basic issue prohibiting successful application integration then is that traditional database-driven integration does not consider the distinct languages of each domain. An engineering models meaning is expressed through the underlying language of that engineering domain. In essence, traditional integration methods do not retain the semantic context (meaning) of the model. The basis of this research stems from the widely held assumption that systems engineering models are (or can be) structured according to the underlying semantic ontology of the model. This assumption can be imagined from two thoughts. 1) Digital systems engineering models are often represented using graph theory (the graph of a complex systems model can contain millions of nodes and edges). When examining the nodes one at a time and following the outbound edges of each node one by one, one can end up with rudimentary statements about the model (i.e., node A relates to node B), as in a semantic graph. 2) Likewise, from the study of natural languages, a sentence can be structured into unambiguous triples of subject-predicate-object within formal and highly expressive semantic ontologies. The rudimentary statements about a systems model discerned with graph theory closely mimic the triples used in the ontologies that try to structure natural languages. In other words, a systems models semantic graph can be (or is) structured into an ontology. Additionally, it is well established in industry that through natural language processing (NLP), which provides the means to create language structures, that computers can interpret ontological graphs. Therefore, the authors hypothesized that if the integrity of the underlying semantic structure of a systems model is retained, the contextual meaning of the model is retained. By structuring system models into the triples of the underlying ontology during the transformation from one MBSE application to another, the authors have provided a proof of the concept that the meaning of a system model can be retained during transformation. The authors assert that this is the missing ingredient in effective systems model-to-model interoperability. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank the FY19 Model Interoperability team members who provided a solid foundation for the FY20 team to leverage: John McCloud, for the work he did to guide us toward the right use of technology that will appropriately discover and manipulate ontologies. Carlos Tafoya, for the work he did to develop an application programming interface (API)/Adapter that would export ontology-based data from GENESYS. Peter Chandler, for the work he did to architect our overall integration solution, with an eye toward the future that would influence a large-scale federated production-level systems engineering digital model ecosystem.
42 ENGINEERING↗
Charter for Systems Engineer Working Group
This charter establishes the International Space Station Program (ISSP) Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Systems Engineering Working Group (SEWG). The MSS SEWG is established to provide a mechanism for Systems Engineering for the end-to-end MSS function. The MSS end-to-end function includes the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), the Mobile Remote Servicer (MRS) Base System (MBS), Robotic Work Station (RWS), Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), Video Signal Converters (VSC), and Operations Control Software (OCS), the Mobile Transporter (MT), and by interfaces between and among these elements, and United States On-Orbit Segment (USOS) distributed systems, and other International Space Station Elements and Payloads, (including the Power Data Grapple Fixtures (PDGFs), MSS Capture Attach System (MCAS) and the Mobile Transporter Capture Latch (MTCL)). This end-to-end function will be supported by the ISS and MSS ground segment facilities. This charter defines the scope and limits of the program authority and document control that is delegated to the SEWG and it also identifies the panel core membership and specific operating policies.
Suffredini, Michael T.↗
Considerations For Waste-to-Base Future Research Paths
Developing innovative technologies to reprocess low value waste into high value base products will enable a new “Waste-to-Base” (WtB) capability that can spawn a new approach to mission design. Systems engineers and mission architects will work together under a new paradigm in logistics planning. Equipment, components, packaging, storage, and structures will be understood not only by functional requirements, but also in terms of useful lifetimes and materials of construction. The advent of a new technical discipline - reprocess engineering - will grow from the intersection between chemical, mechanical, and systems engineering, mission design, and logistics planning. A crowdsourcing approach was employed to gather low TRL concepts into workable solutions for issues in trash management, CO2 processing, foam re-processing, and fecal processing. The results of the crowdsourcing activities are summarized along with a roadmap for future technology development work.
Logistics reduction↗
Considerations For Waste-to-Base Future Research Paths
Developing innovative technologies to reprocess low value waste into high value base products will enable a new “Waste-to-Base” (WtB) capability leading to innovative approaches to space mission design. Systems engineers and mission architects will work together under a new paradigm in logistics planning. Equipment, components, packaging, storage, and structures will be understood not only by functional requirements, but also in terms of useful lifetimes and materials of construction. The advent of a new technical discipline - reprocess engineering - will grow from the intersection between chemical, mechanical, and systems engineering, mission design, and logistics planning. A crowdsourcing approach was employed to gather low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) concepts into workable solutions for issues in trash management, CO 2 processing, foam reprocessing, and fecal processing. The results of the crowdsourcing activities are summarized along with a discussion for future technology development work.
Logistics reduction↗
Considerations For Waste-to-Base Future Research Paths
Developing innovative technologies to reprocess low value waste into high value base products will enable a new “Waste-to-Base” (WtB) capability leading to innovative approaches to space mission design. Systems engineers and mission architects will work together under a new paradigm in logistics planning. Equipment, components, packaging, storage, and structures will be understood not only by functional requirements, but also in terms of useful lifetimes and materials of construction. The advent of a new technical discipline - reprocess engineering - will grow from the intersection between chemical, mechanical, and systems engineering, mission design, and logistics planning. A crowdsourcing approach was employed to gather low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) concepts into workable solutions for issues in trash management, CO2 processing, foam reprocessing, and fecal processing. The results of the crowdsourcing activities are summarized along with a discussion for future technology development work.
Logistics reduction↗
Voyager spacecraft phase B, task D. Volume 2 - System description. Book 4 - Engineering mechanics, propulsion, planet scan platform Final report
Structural design and engineering mechanics of baseline Voyager spacecraft, propulsion support, and planetary scan platform
Source record↗