Ok space fans, This is a huge event for me and my company.
We're launching our Falcon 9 rocket with our Dragon spacecraft mounted to the
tip. Our mission is to rendezvous with the international space station about 4
days after the launch.
The launch is scheduled for this Saturday morning 1:55 am
Pacific coast time, it's a late one. If we don't launch, our next window is on
May 22nd, I don't know what time. Our launch window is about 10 minutes long
the reason for this is that we have to launch and meet up with the space
station. It's only in a good location to do that about every 3 days.
This is another first for Spacex and private aerospace.
We'll be the first fully private company to dock with the space station, we'll
also be receiving the 2nd reentry certificate from the FAA ever.
"oh this sounds cool, what do you/did you actually do
for this event?" you may be mumbling this.
Well, when I'm not riding bicycles or flying r/c
helicopters, I'm turning my brain into mush at work trying to solve problems in
cheap and innovative ways. We have a very different style of work here than any
other aerospace company. I would consider work here to be more like college.
You're on your own, you don't have to answer to a senior engineer b/c we don't
have any. I'm 31, and I'm old for working here. I personally do all my
design/cad/analysis. I help out with testing, but by that time I'm
usually onto another project.
My department is avionics. Avionics are the computers,
sensors, controllers, and power for the rocket. The nervous system if you will.
I use my expensive mechanical engineering degree from the University of Vermont
to package all of these electronics. To boil it down, I design boxes for
electronics that will function through the rough trip up to space, in space,
and then under salt water when we splash down.
Here's a list of things that I design that will (should) be
functioning on this launch.
For the F9 rocket:
-batteries
-telemetry recorder (black box)
-GPS receivers
-camera enclosures
-things that make wiring easier
For the Dragon capsule:
-batteries (this was my whole last year, hardest thing I've
done)
-power distribution box
-power management unit
-cameras
-other smaller boxes that i don't know what they do.
On the Space station:
-I designed the power distribution box that powers the radio
that the astronauts use to control dragon.
Go to www.spacex.com
for the live video broadcast. Click here for an overview of the mission.
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