Virginia Tech aerospace and ocean engineering (AOE) graduate Michael Wells recently completed his first lead engineering design project at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. An aeronautical engineer associate at Lockheed Martin, Wells designed a full-scale Crew Module Aft Bay / Subsystems mockup for the new Orion crew exploration vehicle.
Orion will be the flagship of NASA’s Constellation Program, which is comprised of the spacecraft and systems that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station and conduct sustained human exploration of the moon and Mars. Orion is scheduled to make its first crewed flight in the spring of 2015.
Wells led the Lockheed Martin Orion project team that recently assembled the full-scale mockup in Johnson Space Center’s Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, which is where the astronauts train for space flight. “This low-fidelity mockup is a useful, hands-on tool that helps design engineers reduce in-flight risks associated with the position and layout of subsystem components of the Orion crew exploration vehicle,” explained Wells. Flight computers and life support systems are examples of the subsystems that rest behind the crew cabin walls and floor within the pressurized area of the Crew Module. Other subsystems such as propulsion tanks, thrusters and fuel lines lie in the lower, unpressurized area of the vehicle.
University of Texas engineering student Christopher Harding assisted Wells with the design and assembly of this mockup. “Taking the fundamental engineering principals that we’ve learned in class and then applying them to the Orion spacecraft design has been an incredible experience for me,” said Harding who is now in his second summer internship with Lockheed Martin.
“Young kids often talk about growing up to be astronauts or firemen, but they don’t realize that it’s just as exciting to be the people who design and build the spacecraft and fire trucks,” said Harding. “Trust me, I speak from experience!” According to Harding, the most exciting part of this project was being able to bring a design from paper to full-scale actuality. “Fabricating and constructing the mockup was much more challenging and rewarding than just doing the computer designs at my desk.”
As lead designer for the mockup, Wells worked closely with engineers at Lockheed Martin, NASA and Hamilton Sundstrand during the fabrication process. “We knew that this mockup was going to get a lot of use, so we designed it be easy to reconfigure and affordable to modify,” said Wells.
This full-scale, 3D model gives engineers a real-life perspective than cannot be seen on computer-generated designs. Wells explained that the mockup is comprised of 10 sections built from lightweight plywood and galvanized steel. The sectional design, coupled with the use of rolling casters, magnets and light-weight foam block components, allows for myriad engineering and design evaluations that can be conducted on individual sections or the unit as a whole. The foam blocks that represent subsystem hardware are color-coded for easy identification: green: avionics; blue: ECLSS (environmental control and life support systems); yellow: power; red: propulsion and white: interface panels.
A computer-aided design (CAD) system will soon be installed next to the mockup so that the CAD images can be updated simultaneously as engineers make real-time changes in the physical layout.
According to Scott Baird, NASA Orion crew module office manager for the Crew Module Aft Bay / Subsystems Mockup, this project is the result of a four-month-long team effort of project offices, contractors and NASA centers. “It is critical that we have the designers, builders and crew members all working together to create the best possible vehicle design for Orion,” said Baird. “The Vehicle Integration Office and the Crew Module Office provided valuable information to the Lockheed Martin design team to ensure that we had appropriate representation of all the subsystems needed to support the crew exploration vehicle aft bay design.”
Baird explained that the Crew Module Aft Bay / Subsystems mockup will be utilized by design, assembly and operations teams from around the country, including Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center and Lockheed Martin, to assess component placement, fit checks and the interconnectivity between the subsystems.
This mockup should remain in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility through late 2009 when the full-scale, medium fidelity mockup is scheduled to be installed. The higher fidelity mockup will be used to assess the vehicle’s baseline design and conduct crew member operability testing and verification. These assessments will aid in the design refinements needed for the vehicle’s Critical Design Review scheduled for fall 2010.
Wells graduated from Virginia Tech’s AOE program in 2006 and later joined the Lockheed Martin Orion Project team in 2007. Wells is a native of Johannesburg, South Africa and moved to the United States in 1996. He graduated from Alan C. Pope High School in Marietta, Georgia in 2001.
Harding is a sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin where he is studying Aerospace Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Harding graduated from Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in 2006. For more information about NASA’s Constellation Program and Orion crew exploration vehicle, visit www.nasa.gov . To learn more about Lockheed Martin and the company’s contributions to Human Space Flight, go to www.lockheedmartin.com .