ECOSat
On the ECOSat team I have risen to the role of lead mechanical engineer. However, my unique skill set enables me to get my hands dirty with software and electrical engineering too. I contributed significantly to the design, manufacture, assembly, integration and testing for every mechanical system on the spacecraft. In addition, I am the project leader for the ADCS (Attitude Determination and Control System). I designed the ACS's (Attitude Control System) electrical hardware. I am now revising the firmware and drivers for the ACS for integration into the spacecraft's RTOS (Real Time Operating System) and CAN(Controller Area Network) communication bus. With this project I will see a full product lifecycle from initial design to deorbit in 3-5 years.
Myself and four other senior members of the team traveled to the CSA's David Florida Laboratory in Ottawa, Ontario for the CSDC's (Canadian Satellite Design Challenge) final design review and environmental testing, where we won first place in the competition winning the ECOSat-2 a launch to space! We are currently waiting for a launch date and making final preparations for our spacecraft.
Attitude Control System(ACS)
Attitude Control System CAD
Altium Designer was used to design the ACS to meet the design objectives. The ACS drives 6 magnetorquers for primarpy attitude control. The system redundantly uses two magnetorqers in each direction, X, Y and Z.
ACS Fully Assembled
The 4-layer circuit board was manufactured by Advanced Circuits. The board components were manually placed and soldered in a reflow oven. Magnetorquer mounts were waterjet cut. Magnetorquers were wound with a modified lathe.
ACS Stack integration
Full intergration with the board stack, the ACS board is at the top of the image with X magnetorquers visible. The right and left of the image are the Z magnetorquers protected with kapton tape. There is about 1mm clearance between the board stack and the Z magnetorquers. 1.4mm between the battery boards and the ACS board(not shown). The toleranceses on the spacecraft are very tight!
Structure
Manufacturing
I am working on the mill to the left. Some parts were designed to be simple enough to quickly manufacture with a manual mill. More complex parts were sent to one of our sponsors, Prototype Equipment Design, for manufacture.
Integration
Integrating systems on the spacecraft.
Design
Using Solidworks the entire spacecraft is assembeled to check for tolerances and confirm compliance with design objectives. All designs are synced with SVN version control to a central repo. The primary strucutre of the spacecraft had been designed when I joined the team, however I made extensive modifications and improvlments as the design evolved.
Public Relatoins
Website
I redesigned the ECOSat team's website to bring it out of the noughties. I also set up a internal wiki used for extensively documenting all spacecraft designs and systems. The wiki has proved a great resource for the team and I would recomend a similar system implemented when documenting future projects.
Grant Proposals
I wrote two grant proposals for the team.
Wighton Fund ApplicationEndownment Fund Application
Press Releases
I wrote both press releases for our first place in the Critical Design Review(CDR) and for our victory at the Final Design Review(FRD) of the CSDC
CDR Press Release 2013FDR Press Release 2014