NASA Engineering Example
I am doing some research at work today and was reading up on the CRISM instrument that is part of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). This is a mission that is orbiting Mars right now and has been sending back phenomenal data about the planet.
Check out the engineering that went into the CRISM instrument design. From the article: This is like saying, "keep a pot of water boiling and an ice cube frozen on a dinner plate, while keeping the plate at room temperature. And use no more electricity than a Christmas tree bulb." http://crism.jhuapl.edu/instrument/innoDesign.php And people wonder why this stuff is so expensive :facepalm: |
bahhhh Dr Brown made a flux capacitor in his own home...... :D
on another note, Nasa spent millions designing a pen that would work in space........ USSR used a pencil ........ hehehehe |
Originally Posted by sprx3
(Post 552819)
bahhhh Dr Brown made a flux capacitor in his own home...... :D
on another note, Nasa spent millions designing a pen that would work in space........ USSR used a pencil ........ hehehehe |
Pretty awesome stuff. Lots of our technological advancements come from nasa.
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Originally Posted by sprx3
(Post 552819)
on another note, Nasa spent millions designing a pen that would work in space........
USSR used a pencil ........ hehehehe |
Yes, but how much money have they made from licensing technology that allows pens to write upside down? Probably more than it cost to design it....
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Originally Posted by sprx3
(Post 552819)
bahhhh Dr Brown made a flux capacitor in his own home...... :D
on another note, Nasa spent millions designing a pen that would work in space........ USSR used a pencil ........ hehehehe Or not.. http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...tion-nasa-spen |
Originally Posted by sprx3
(Post 552819)
on another note, Nasa spent millions designing a pen that would work in space........
USSR used a pencil ........ hehehehe --Ferdi |
Good ol alien technology. I love my cell phone.
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Originally Posted by sprx3
(Post 552819)
bahhhh Dr Brown made a flux capacitor in his own home...... :D
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Originally Posted by sprx3
(Post 552819)
bahhhh Dr Brown made a flux capacitor in his own home...... :D
on another note, Nasa spent millions designing a pen that would work in space........ USSR used a pencil ........ hehehehe |
A 1/100 of a degree C alters the instruments readings. One part of the diagram they show has a component that has to be at -260, which appears to be about 2 inches from another component that had to be at -76. And they are both hyper sensitive detectors of some sort which just got blasted up the gravity well at about 4G average with a ton of vibration.
But dont worry. I'm not an engineer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Wow. |
Originally Posted by Sparetire
(Post 552942)
which just got blasted up the gravity well at about 4G average with a ton of vibration.
For example of how big these loads are, I have been running some numbers lately for an instrument design I have been working on. The quasi-static acceleration load I am using (based on the random vibration profile for this mission) is 188g, or 188 times Earth gravity. That is pretty typical for a 3-sigma stress level determination. So that instrument I linked to probably went through the same thing. They would have used something large like an Atlas rocket to launch an interplanetary mission, which is what ours would be using. You should see the Shaker Table tests that simulate the vibration loading. It is pretty violent for a spacecraft payload. It will break stuff that was not designed and/or built properly. Fortunately the instrument I built and just tested did not break :) |
Gawd how that must feel to see all that work made matirial and then subjected to that. It would be like watching your kid in his first boxing match.
What do you do anyway? |
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Originally Posted by Sparetire
(Post 552977)
What do you do anyway?
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Cool. Thats the kind of work thats fun enough to get you through the damned spreadsheets and all AFAIK.
Doesnt air conduct across about 1CM with a 20K volt difference? Would a high 02 environment be less? Boom. |
Originally Posted by Sparetire
(Post 552983)
Cool. Thats the kind of work thats fun enough to get you through the damned spreadsheets and all AFAIK.
Doesnt air conduct across about 1CM with a 20K volt difference? Would a high 02 environment be less? Boom |
Originally Posted by ZX-Tex
(Post 552982)
I am a Mechanical Engineer working for a large R&D firm in San Antonio. The Division I work for develops scientific instruments and electronics (computers) for NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and military missions. I work with the scientists here to turn their crazy (but brilliant) ideas into flight hardware. Design, build, test. Very challenging, but fun stuff.
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Can you fix our turbo bolt problem :p
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Originally Posted by hustler
(Post 552829)
Get back to crime, commonwealther.
Man i cant believe thats a myth, what stories do we tell our grandkids now :vash::giggle: |
Originally Posted by cardriverx
(Post 553218)
cool soooo you guys take in any mech E co-ops? :)
I need a really motivating summer job...classes just keep getting harder, but threads like this make me feel it's worth it. |
Originally Posted by sprx3
(Post 552819)
bahhhh Dr Brown made a flux capacitor in his own home...... :D
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...p?keyword=121g They have Mr. Fusion, too. http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...keyword=121gmf |
We definitely hire coops for the summer. It is a win-win. The coop gets fantastic real-world experience at a good wage, and we get relatively cheap help.
More info here: http://www.swri.org/hr/default.htm Be forewarned, they tend to be really picky about GPAs here. The usual is 3.5 or above but that is not a hard rule. If you have some directly relevant skill they are looking for, or they are trying to hire more than normal, then that could change. A friend of mine that worked here, Mech Engineer, has a 4.0 from Rice (BSME) AND a 4.0 from Stanford (MSME). Holy crap... :facepalm: |
Originally Posted by ZX-Tex
(Post 553404)
We definitely hire coops for the summer. It is a win-win. The coop gets fantastic real-world experience at a good wage, and we get relatively cheap help.
More info here: http://www.swri.org/hr/default.htm Be forewarned, they tend to be really picky about GPAs here. The usual is 3.5 or above but that is not a hard rule. If you have some directly relevant skill they are looking for, or they are trying to hire more than normal, then that could change. A friend of mine that worked here, Mech Engineer, has a 4.0 from Rice (BSME) AND a 4.0 from Stanford (MSME). Holy crap... :facepalm: |
Originally Posted by cardriverx
(Post 553529)
Eh High GPA is for wankers, I have more real world experience on our FSAE team than he probably does. Anyway I have a 2.4 right now so I guess that job is a no go =(. I cant believe I just used a British insult too haha.
I'm hoping someone will see past that low GPA a year from now. |
My school was the same way. If you put in the time to really be a part of the FSAE team, it really cost you in grades. So I chose to focus on grades since low grades would cost me scholarships/HOPE Grant which would mean I would have had to take out loans.
I will say co-oping was one of the best things I did in college. Over 50% of engineering students at my college co-oped. It drug out graduation a bit, but when I graduated, I had over a year of real world experience to refer back to during my interviews. It made a huge difference. I also graduated debt free thanks to the co-op income. Work one quarter, pay for the next. |
Well, to be honest, my BS GPA was not that great either. Worked all through college, FSAE, etc. My MS GPA is much better. But I got in here through the back door. Long story short they knew my abilities before they hired me, sort of a test-drive.
GPA is important but it is not the end-all. Later on in your career a lot of employers do not even look at it anymore. The problem is for the recent grad positions they get thousands of resumes for a few positions so they use GPA as the initial filter criteria, right or wrong. BUT, coop experience is also very important especially in Engineering. It helps to show you can solve problems in the real world. Two people with the same GPA, both from good schools, but one has coop experience. The one with coop experience is going to get more attention, no doubt. |
I will say that being on my third job since I graduated that my GPA was only really taken into account on the first job. Also, a lower GPA is sometimes overlooked if it's a good school. Don't know if that helps or not.
And one last plug to encourage the ME's out there. My BSME has been a very versatile degree. It has allowed me to work as a: Automotive Assembly Line Support Engineer (co-op) Tire Design Engineer Electrical Controls Engineer Aerospace Engineer Other majors that are more specialized can do some of the above jobs, but the ME degree is so broad it allows you to do any of them. |
Originally Posted by clay
(Post 553546)
Other majors that are more specialized can do some of the above jobs, but the ME degree is so broad it allows you to do any of them.
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I'm gonna get a BSME so I can go into naval aviation. Word.
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Let me guess, you want to be a test pilot in pointy nosed jets! That's the recipe I hear. My BIL got his ME degree from the Naval Academy for that exact reason. Ended up flying H60's and got out 3 years ago.
It's funny, he had NO plans on ever using his ME degree so he was the only guy who graduated with one that year that didn't take the EIT. What's he doing now... Tire Test Engineer for Michelin. |
Originally Posted by ZX-Tex
(Post 553547)
Word. Plus the BSME degree is just the toolbox. You learn what you really need to know on-the-job.
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