MUSPIN MESSENGER Summer Student Scholar Program

• Richard Balcarran, undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering, City College of New York

  Using PRO/E (AutoCAD), I designed a weight balance bracket for the adapter on the spacecraft. This means that my design will actually be in space! I also was responsible for the engineering drawings for this bracket and other brackets that were designed by others. Also, I did the engineering drawings for the nut plates for the brackets. Earlier in the summer, I had to redo calculations for a flexure which is basically a small I-beam. The height of the flexure needed to be increased, so I had to use Statics to calculate a new thickness for this height that would keep the stiffness the same. Recently, I had to review a CG (center gravity) chart for the space craft to see if the signs for the CG values were correct. They wanted to make sure there were no errors before they shipped it to Goddard. I managed to find some errors, and was applauded for my work.

• Amarilis Bueno, graduate student, Computer Science, College of Staten Island

  Project: Spacecraft autonomy support
  Under Mr. Martin L. Gomez' supervision I've worked with the MESSENGER Safing & Fault Proctection Requirements Specification Manual. It is the system-level document for the mission. The requirements are implemented as rules that evaluate and act on the MESSENGER Fault Protection Processor (FPPs). It also includes additional autonomy rules that are evaluated by the Main Processor (MP). I also worked on creating an archive in a UNIX directory, using MKS Source Integrity to keep track of who accesses a file and which changes were made to that specific file. This archive is being used for developers to access all the files and write their code. The archive included all the macro files created from the system-level manual.

• Willie Caraballo, undergraduate, Computer Engineering, City College of New York

  Project: Telemetry Support
  I'm currently working in the I&T division under the guidance of Richard Dragonette, Timothy Krueger and Tom Jennings. My task is to develop EDl pages that will display certain telemetry points sent from the spacecraft. I have worked on several pages, each focused on different subsystems of the satellite. I have worked with the Main processor(MP), the Fault Protection Processor (FPP), the Solar Array Drive (SAD),the Star Tracker (AST), the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and the Reaction wheels.

• Ayanna Moses, undergraduate, Math, Medgar Evers College

  Project: Spacecraft autonomy support
  My mentor is Martin Gomez, System Engineer, whose task is to prepare the autonomy rules for the MESSENGER mission. Autonomy rules are loaded into macros in the autonomy system. These are fired once a maximum fire count is reached, thus either turning 'off' or 'on' some implement(s) on the system. My mission is that of a "tool smith". I have to generate perl script templates for the rules. My first program is a template maker that creates the macro files and loads a template of the macros onto it, so that the user just has to enter the execution commands. Another program I am working on has to change logical rule number embedded into the macro files into physical rule numbers based on a rule map. This is done so that the Autonomy Rule Compiler will invoke the actual rule being called and not a pseudonym, which is written into the commands for easy readability.

• Gregory Pierce, graduate student, Physics and Computer Science, City College of New York
• Marcello Rodriguez, undergraduate, Pre-engineering, Queensborough Community College

  Project: Telemetry Support
  I am currently working in the Space Science Mission Operation Department. I am working with EPOCH 2000 which is the software used for communication between operations and the spacecraft. I have been taking assigned APIDs and creating telemetry pages that are readable and user friendly to the operation team that views them. These telemetry pages give us various information about the spacecraft, its status and the data received.

• Alexander Torres, Electrical Engineering, City College of New York

  I'm currently working in the I & T division under the guidance of Rob Gallagher, Timothy Krueger and Tom Jennings. My main task was to build the EDL page for the power subsystem on the MESSENGER spacecraft. An EDL page displays telemetry from any of the various electronic devices onboard the satellite. This simplifies the integration and testing process by making all the relevant information at hand. In addition to the power page, I've also worked on some basic STOL procedures, such as a script to call up the various pages built by the other interns at the I&T division, and red-lining first level circuits onto the power system schematics.

• Paula Washington, undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering, City College of New York

  Project: Thermal Testing
  I work in the Environmental Test Facility, under the guidance of Hadi Navid and Bill Wilkinson. This facility houses vibration and space simulation equipment used to replicate the expected pre-, during, and post- launch environment and temperatures in space. I have prepared and drawn updated schematic and wire diagrams of the 3D3, VEECO, and other vacuum chambers involved in testing the spacecraft instruments. I have also helped setup up space simulation tests for MESSENGER instruments such as the Power Distribution Unit and Magnetometer. I am currently creating thermal and vacuum performance profiles of the 3D3 Chamber that will serve as a basis for predicting the chamber temperatures and pressures.