Orbit Fab
Since 2024, I have been a Propulsion Engineer at Orbit Fab
Fluids Lab
To mitigate risks for our upcoming demonstration missions, I was assigned to develop a fluids breadboarding capability. It consists of the payload simulator (which we call the flatsat), and the systems required to provide it with "fuel" (water, since hydrazine would be a pain to work with for a breadboard), electricity, and pressurant gas. Additional subsystems consist of a vacuum system, a DAQ, and a "client spacecraft" for us to practice refueling.
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For the most part, I was working alone during the design, procurement, and build processes since the other members of our prop team were occupied with more urgent tasks.
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Below, I've included some highlights of the subsystems I built for the fluids lab. I haven't included everything to avoid showing off proprietary information, but I tried to give a good overview of the scope of the project.
Fluids Lab DAQ (Relays)
This is the inside of the relay cabinet that converts the 24 VDC low-current signal from the Dewesoft to a high-current 24 VDC (top row) or 120 VAC (middle rows) signal to power solenoid valves, vacuum pumps, and the Harbor Freight water pump visible at the bottom middle-left of the image.
Fluids Lab Water, Vacuum, and Pneumatics Systems
Pneumatics Tank
This 125 pisg Harbor Freight surge tank allows us to run our valves without a direct connection to shop air. (Though we prefer to stay connected to the high-volume air compressor in the shop when we can)
High-Pressure Water Pump
Early-on, we determined that the systems in the fluids lab should be capable of pumping large volumes of water up to ~1,500 psig. To do this in a way that we thought would be simple, we stuck a cheap pressure washer pump on a 2.3 kW servo motor.
While it proved to be much more complicated than we thought, it does work pretty well!
We didn't have the money for a fancy stainless vacuum tank, so I just grabbed a couple of cheap air tanks and McMaster Vacuum pumps. The system needs a lot of improvements and leaks like a sieve, but still pulls below the vapor pressure of water. I'll improve the system when I get the time to eliminate leaks and improve our ability to simulate space when venting propellants.
Vacuum Backbone Tank
The low-pressure feed system for the high-pressure pump is made up of the PVC and flex hoses you can see all-over the image. (I clearly need to work on my hose management, but I haven't had the time to mount them somewhere permanent.)
It's a bit janky since I was largely working by myself and this project got de-prioritized, but I made something work with the hardware store parts I was able to snag on my way into the shop.
