Category Archives: 2013 – 2014

July 10-12, 2009

Posted on by

On Friday we flew from Paris to Munich to begin the Germany section of the trip. The flights had been booked for us, and we got to take Air Berlin (check out the picture). I was very impressed by this low-cost European carrier, and will certainly fly them any time I can in the future. Upon arrival, we got checked into our hostel and only had a few hours remaining in the day. A few friends and I headed straight for the city center of Munich, known as Marienplatz. It was definitely the liveliest area in the city, and had a lot of things to see and do. After a nice dinner we headed back to our comfortable room to get prepared for the next day.

Saturday (July 11) was our big workday while in Munich. That morning we went out to the Deutches Museum northwest of Munich that is dedicated to aviation. The museum had a lot of interesting aircraft and information. Some of my favorite displays were the agricultural-use aircraft, as it showed a different side of aviation we had not yet discovered. Another cool display was not an aircraft at all, but rather an experiment. There was a propeller driven by pedals that, when gaining enough speed, would move the seat around in a circle (see picture). This was a very cool way to learn about how propellers work, and provided our group with a reason to lose concentration for about 30 minutes.

Saturday afternoon, we headed back into central Munich to the main Deutches Museum building, which included airplanes but had also many other displays. At this museum, we got to see many different military aircraft from Germany. Also, there was a Lufthansa Boeing 707 cockpit that you could see into. It is very cool to notice the huge differences in cockpits from many years ago when compared to cockpits of today. Another interesting display was the section on German air traffic control. Aside from the aviation part of the museum, we were encouraged to stay after the session and check out the rest of the exhibits. This museum was certainly one of my favorites and housed exhibits on nearly any technological advancement you could imagine. Some things covered were aviation, space exploration, boating and navigation, nuclear energy, computers, assembly lines, robotics, and thousands of other items. The never-ending array of information was fascinating, and I could have spent a much longer time at the Deutches Museum.

After a long Saturday of work, we were rewarded with a free day to end the weekend. I started my day on a free walking tour and saw a lot of the city. Some of the better sites included the Hofbrahaus, Glockenspiel, Frauenkirche, Mozart’s temporary home, and the City Hall. Although those sites were quite breathtaking, they didn’t even compare to what I was about to experience. That afternoon I hopped on a train and decided to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp outside of Munich. From the moment I arrived I felt the power of such a devastating place. The barracks, the showers, the washrooms, and the museum were almost too much to handle. And then, when I thought I had seen it all, we stepped into the gas chamber and crematorium. The entire time I visited the site I couldn’t help but feel saddened by certainly one of the low points of the human race. However, it was quite a sobering experience, and I certainly will never forget how I felt and what I saw at Dachau.

Munich has been a great way to begin our visit in Germany. I have really enjoyed the city’s liveliness and culture. The German language is very different, but I am having fun trying to use some of what I learned prior to leaving. I am excited to head out to Traben-Trarbach, where our group will take a glider flight. I hope you have enjoyed my Europe journals, and if you have any questions about the trip or something else, email me at meansm@erau.edu. Thanks for reading.

Tchüss from Deutschland,
Mack

July 2009

Posted on by

I can’t believe my time in Colorado is over half way gone. I’ve been at Ball for six weeks now and only have four weeks left.

Lately I’ve been working on a solar array sizing program. I never really liked programming before, but actually applying it to things that I’m interested in is actually pretty cool. In the program, you input the power loads (how much power the instruments need) and some other information which is specific to the satellite such as orbit altitude, and what you want to make your solar array and batteries out of. Then it spits out answers like how big your solar array needs to be, how many batteries are required and the eclipse and sunlight exposure times. I’m still working out a few final input error checks and the form the user fills out, but I’m excited to see my final product!

There are several other aerospace companies in the area and the intern coordinators organized a bowling night for all of us. So interns from Lockheed Martin, ULA and Ball, had a fun night together. I have no idea who ultimately won, but I scored higher than 100 and that was awesome for me.

My team’s payloads for the rocket are right on schedule, which makes our lives so much less stressful. I was talking to our mentor for the project and we was telling us that although it was a much simplified process, that the steps we went through with the designing, and communicating with the ULA interns was exactly what we would have to do after we graduate. This week we made mass simulating payloads for ULA to use to test their rocket, and next week we go back to their facilities to integrate our units into theirs. I’ll let you know how it goes!

July 2009

Posted on by

This one is for the geeks in the room…

Hi, again. Since I have been at Glenn Research Center (GRC) now since January, I want to mention some of the things that I have worked on here already before talking about my current projects. Initially, I was hired to work on a design for a test chamber able to simulate the environment on the surface of Venus. That was one of two main projects I worked on last semester.

On that project, I met with test engineers, materials engineers, mechanical, and electrical engineers to consult on my design. The work I did involved doing stress calculations, researching materials, researching existing test chambers and industry as well as doing Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis. I ended up producing a preliminary design for the test chamber, able to test an entire Venus lander at surface conditions, and co-authoring a paper in the works for publication. I also wrote a program in Matlab to calculate the deceleration loads seen during ballistic entry into the atmosphere of Venus at varying velocities and entry angles.

The second project I worked on last semester was great, because I actually ended up doing hands on work with electronics and was able to see hardware built from my design. The project was to design a battery and enclosure along with charging circuitry. The battery was to be charged using the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) simulator, a spacecraft power system my branch developed, as a power source. This battery and charging circuitry, combined with the ASRG simulator, will be part of a demonstration unit showing that ASRG technology can be used to charge batteries on lunar vehicles or rovers.

The picture shown of me was taken next to the battery and enclosure I designed, and the little black box containing my circuitry. This project was absolutely awesome to work on, stretching my electrical and mechanical education and skills to the max. Between these two projects I used nearly every bit of knowledge I have gained at Embry-Riddle.

Thanks again for reading, more to come in a week or two.
Geoff

July 6-9, 2009

Posted on by

We quickly emerged from the Chunnel and arrived in Paris. Although I had been once before, I got to see and do a lot of exciting new things. Paris is so much different than London, in good ways and bad, but it is fun to experience more than one culture on a trip. Although it is generally less inviting than the British, the French culture is one I have a deep appreciation for so I was happy to return to the city of Paris.

After the fast train ride we checked into our hotel and headed to the Louvre for a group cultural experience. The Louvre displays sucha wide variety of works of art from all different time periods andplaces all over the world. It’s a bit overwhelming to try to grip theimportance and historical value of everything you see. A few of thethousands exhibits included Michelangelo’s Dying Slave and Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. I really appreciate the effort of Professor Kirton to make the cultural events part of the course. Not only have I learned a lot about aviation, but also I have broadened my global thinking.

On Tuesday we visited Musee de L’Air et de L’Espace. Filled with all kinds of aircraft, this museum was my favorite in France. The museum had everything imaginable, from man’s first flight in a balloon to full size Concorde jets. My favorite exhibit was the retired Air France Boeing 747-400. I had never been on a 747, and I got to see everything: the cockpit, cabins, cargo holds, wirings, and so much more. The effect of the Boeing 747 on civil aviation is almost immeasurable, and it was an extraordinary experience to study the aircraft inside and out.

On Wednesday (July 8), the group headed south of Paris to an Aerodrome at Cerny. It was quite a trek to this location, but it was a fun little adventure. After an hour on the train, we hiked up a hill for about 30 minutes in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say, we were all happy about finding the airfield. The hangars were filled with old airplanes from the World Wars and other events, all of which were still flyable. An American working at the Aerodrome gave us a walking tour of the planes and answered all of our questions. He was very knowledgeable and his stories were fascinating. While eating lunch, a French Army helicopter landed at the field in the pouring rain, which was neat. After leaving Cerny we went back to Paris for our group picture at the Arc Du Triumph.

Thursday was our free day at Paris, and we accomplished a lot. A group of five of us visited Notre Dame, the Sacre Couer, Centre Pompidou, and the top of the Eiffel Tower. Each attraction was a little different, but I found all of them very interesting. Although they are quite close geographically, the cities of Paris and London feel worlds apart. I love both of them, but I still believe London ranks higher for me. Tomorrow however, we are switching it up again as we fly to Munich to begin our German section of the trip.

Au revoir from Paris,
Mack

July 1-5, 2009

Posted on by

I blinked my eyes and just like that I as leaving for London. With a minor delay I left St. Louis and met some friends in Philadelphia for the transatlantic flight. After a very uncomfortable seven hour flight (I do not recommend US Airways transatlantic), we arrived at London-Gatwick airport and our EU Aviation Appreciation adventure began. From the airport we caught the Gatwick express to downtown London and followed the professor’s instructions to catch the tube (London Underground) to our hostel. Our room was extremely small with four beds squished into it, but we only needed the room for sleeping so we made it work.

The afternoon of our arrival (July 2), we all met at the British Science Museum for our first session. The museum has a great display of all different types of aircraft and parts. One of the most interesting planes was the Vickers Vimy (pictured), which was the first plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It was a larger plane for its day, and had some pretty impressive specifications. My other favorite display was a cross section cut out of a British Airways 747 jet. It interested me greatly to see all of the inner workings of the commercial aircraft. The next day (July 3), we headed off to the Imperial War Museum north of London. The train and bus rides to Duxford took a little while, but the wait was well worth it. My true love of aviation is in commercial aviation, and this museum had many commercial displays. I really enjoyed the British Oversees Airways Corporation (BOAC) BAC-VC10. I had never heard or read too much about this aircraft, but it was much bulkier than I expected it to be from pictures. It was like an MD82 on steroids with two extra engines. It was very different looking, but still very cool. Another plane I was surprised to see in Duxford was the Concorde. (Check out the picture of me by the Concord landing gear!) The exact Concorde at the Museum was never used commercially, but was one of the testing planes used by the production company. In its testing it had set the record speed and the record transatlantic flight time for all the Concords. Also in this museum was a de Havilland Comet 4, B52 bomber, and tons of other really neat planes. The Imperial War Museum was definitely my favorite in England. Saturday (July 4) came and we were off to the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon. Although military aviation interests me less, it was still top-notch. The displays in the museum were very interactive and held tons of good information. A lot of information was always appreciated as part of our work included filling out information sheets on aircraft and how they affected aviation and the world. With the information sheets completed we would gather and do short presentations on our favorite planes. This was an effective and simple way to grasp an understanding of how important these planes were to their country’s development and protection.

July 5 was a completely free day for us in London, along with every evening after our sessions. With a lot of time on our own, we got a lot accomplished. A friend of mine from the UK I had met many years ago in Antigua flew down to see me in London. She showed me so many neat things and we really had a great time. The list of things I saw in London includes: London Eye, Tower Bridge, Wax Museum, Wimbledon, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Piccadilly Circus, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and so much more. I loved everything London had to offer, and I know I will be going back sometime. While we were there we also went to the West End (London’s Broadway) and saw the musical Chicago. Not only was the show great, but the guest star happened to be Jerry Springer! My friends and I waited after the show and got to meet him and get a picture with him, which was awesome. London was so amazing it will be hard to top. However we are about to head through the Chunnel, and I am anxiously awaiting Paris!

Cheers from London,
Mack

June 30, 2009

Posted on by

I can hardly believe it is already time for my trip to Europe. Tomorrow I leave for what I hope will be one of the best experiences of my life. It is hard to believe May and June have already passed. I have done so much already this summer, so let me share a few of those things.

After getting back at the end of April, I spent most of the next month working. I got a lot of hours in at the restaurant and made a little bit of money. I also got to spend time with my friends from home on excursions such as camping on a farm and spotting at the St. Louis Airport. As soon as June rolled around, my summer went into hyper drive. My sister got married, my friend Derrick from ERAU came to visit, and I continued my working. I also got to go with my mother, sister, and new brother-in-law for a week to Jamaica. We stayed in Montego Bay and also got to visit Ochos Rios and Negril. I had a lot of fun at all of these things, but June went by way too fast.

When I arrived home from Jamaica I was thrown back into reality. My SS130 Online course (the Co-requisite for the EU Study Abroad) was up and ready to be started. I have not made it very far in the course, but the professor has been very understanding and will not make us do it while traveling abroad. My first impressions of taking a course online are mixed. I like moving at my own pace, but I do not like relying on the cooperation of technology to get it done. I ran into one issue while taking a quiz yesterday, but thankfully my professor is very understanding and the problem was resolved. I am going to have to work really hard when I get home from Europe to be able to catch up on this course.

As I said I leave tomorrow for London. I am meeting two friends in Philadelphia where we will catch our overnight flight to the UK. Here are some bits and pieces of all the exciting things I have planned for the next three weeks:

July 2-5 London
British Science Museum, Imperial War Museum, RAF Museum (including Bomber Command and Battle of Britain Museum), and a full day on our own!

July 6-9 Paris
The Louvre, Musee de l’Air et de l’Espace, Arc de Triomphe, The Aerodrome, and a full day on our own!

July 10-12 Munich
Flugwerft Schleissheim Museum, Duetches Museum, and a full day on our own!

July 13-14 Traben-Trarbach
Mont Royal Airfield for a Glider Flight

After this, we are free to do whatever we wish or to return home. I am certainly going to spend some extra time in Europe and see Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Milan. I will be officially returning home on July 21. Stay tuned for journals from each part of my journey!!! And as always, if you have any questions let me know by emailing me at meansm@erau.edu. Thanks for reading!

Until Next Time,
Mack

June 2009

Posted on by

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a good summer because I know I am!

This last week has been crazy busy at Ball. We’ve been working on a lot of new proposals and with my BIRST rocket program, there hasn’t been a lot of free time.

Last week my rocket team started to actually construct our payloads that will be put in the rocket. Before I had said we were launching little paratroopers out of the rocket, but we couldn’t find any that were the right size and could get in the time allotted. So small change in plans, we’re now launching little mini aliens out of the rocket, it seems rather appropriate to me! I’m mainly working on the payload which is going to launch out a Ball Aerospace flag but last week I got to help out on another group’s area, the pyrotechnic initiators. For those of you that don’t know what it is, a pyrotechnic initiator is the part of the rocket that sets off the charge to jettison a payload out of the main body. Also if you’ve seen a rocket with multiple stages, a lot of them use the same devices to separate. Two interns from my payload went to work with ULA to learn about how to construct these devices. It was a little intimidating at first to be playing with gun powder but when we got to try one out, it was sooo awesome! Our team is going to test them out on our payloads next weekend!

This last weekend a few interns decided we wanted to take advantage of being in Colorado. We found a place in the mountains we wanted to go and set off on a hike. Longs Peak is one of the taller mountains in Colorado and we knew we didn’t stand a chance to make it all the way up, but about 2/3 of the way is a lake at the base of the peak called Chasm Lake. We had to start pretty early because the afternoons are usually when the storms creep in and being on a mountain with lightning doesn’t sound like fun to me. One of my favorite parts was the snow! At one point we had to climb across an ice shelf that was on a hill. The snow was melting so it was pretty slippery, especially on the way back when the sun was high. It took almost 5 hours to get there and back! I’m hoping to get to climb a lot more before I leave since there aren’t any opportunities back at school.

I’ll keep you updated on my internship and rocket! We launch the end of July so I’ll have exciting things to report!

June 2009

Posted on by

“Hello, world!” My name is Geoff Bruder, and I am a senior in Aerospace Engineering with an Astronautics concentration at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus. Since this is my first post, I’ll give you a little of my background and tell you some of the great things I have been able to do thanks to Embry-Riddle.

I have been interested in space and mechanical things as long as I can remember. My earliest memories are of building cars and airplanes with legos and erector sets. I ended up indulging my mechanical curiosity by working on cars in high school. Since I wasn’t able to go straight to a university after high school I worked, and took classes at night. I worked as an auto mechanic and then, thanks to Broward Community College, an AutoCAD technician. While I was working, my aspirations were growing, and I set my sights on the stars, literally.

I did all my research and loved the fact that Embry-Riddle is a dedicated Aerospace university, where you can be immersed in the industry and culture. All of the course training and projects I have worked on here have led me to my current position. I am currently writing from Cleveland, Ohio where I work for NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) as an Aerospace Engineering intern.

Prior to this position, I worked at Kennedy Space Center with the Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP), then at GRC as a USRP intern. Being accepted into the NASA co-op program means I am now a federal employee, and will hopefully be able to transition to be a full time employee with NASA after graduation.

I work with the Thermal Energy Conversion Branch researching, analyzing, and testing Stirling power and cooling systems for spacecraft. My primary focus here has been on hardware for a robotic surface mission to Venus. In subsequent posts I will fill you in on all the gory details. Thanks for your attention, more to come in a couple weeks.

Geoff

June 2009

Posted on by

Hello,
My name is Albane Flamant, I’m an international student from Mons, Belgium and will be starting next fall my senior year. In a little more than a week, I’ll be starting my internship back home in a local newspaper. I’m really excited about it: Even though I’m only a communication student without much experience, I’ll get to write small articles that will be published in a recognized newspaper. I’ve always had a passion for writing but I’ve only tried journalism recently. Last Spring, I spent a lot of my time working for the Avion, the university’s newspaper, as a reporter and an editor. Writing has always been a passion, and I love writing for the Avion. Despite the fact that I’m spending my summer back home in Belgium, I’m currently writing an article about campus for next week’s issue. This internship will hopefully better my writing. Here in Europe, the news writing style is a little different in terms of punctuation and paragraph structure. This will give me the opportunity to experience the European newsroom. It has taken me a while to get through the paperwork because of the language barrier and the cultural difference between the ERAU’s career services and the company hiring me for the summer, but I finally made it. Despite the fact I love writing, I will not probably end up being a journalist after I graduate. However, this will be a great work experience for me and it will enrich my resume and my portfolio. All fields I’m interested in require strong writing skills, and the articles I will write during my internship will be good samples to show potential employers.

So that’s it for this week… I’ll keep you posted on what happens on my first day. I should be running around the city with a notepad, a voice recorder and a camera. It should be interesting. Have a great week!

June 2009

Posted on by

TGIF! One week into my internship and I am so ready for a weekend!

Just to recap, I’m working in the new business department of systems engineering at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, CO. It’s not what I expected (but then again I really had no idea what to expect) but it’s pretty sweet.

My department has a lot of engineers, even though it’s a little more business related, because of all the technical portions in potential contracts the company is bidding on. So basically when a company or the government wants something made they send out a bunch of information about what they need, all the requirements it needs to have, and the process to get it. It’s my department’s job to take all that info, ensure that we are able to competitively fulfill all that’s required, properly format it and ultimately send it back and wait to see if Ball gets the contract.

I’m learning this new program that is unlike anything I’ve ever worked with. It’s project management software; you can input information and manipulate it in a million ways to get the style of output you want. I’ve done some programming before so I’ve been able to develop some short cuts to make their process a little simpler since they do it over and over again.

I have to learn a new programming language because DOORS (the program) has its own language. It’s a little bit odd, one of the engineers I asked for help told me it was created in Europe and was designed for use in the European Space Agency. His theory is that the programmers were a little drunk while creating it because there are a lot of weird quirks about it and a lot of people have trouble with it, which made me feel better because it’s a steep learning curve!

Since I’ve been working, the Human Resources people have been awesome about scheduling tours for all the interns at various Ball facilities. We were able to look around the clean room a few days ago; inside I saw the WorldView-2 satellite under construction. I’m sure most of you have played around on Google maps at some point? Well WorldView-1 was created at Ball and it took most of the pictures for Google! Hurray for upgrades, who knows what this one will be capable of? We also had an intern picnic where they gave us free food, hurray! About half the interns are from Colorado schools, some are from Arizona and the rest are scattered. It’s nice to have a variety so no one really knows each other so we are all bonding pretty well.

Ball is teaming up with United Launch Alliance (ULA) in Denver and their interns are going to be building a rocket and the Ball interns are going to be building payloads for it! The rocket is supposed to go up at least 5000ft! The payload I’m working on isn’t going to be ejected from the body of the rocket and has over 5 cubic feet of room to work with, so brainstorming was difficult. Instead of trying to make some technological breakthrough (we only have 5 weeks to create the entire thing!) we decided to have some fun with it. I don’t know if anyone remembers those little green paratroopers that you would drop off staircases or balconies and the parachutes would deploy when you were a kid? Well my team is going to launch a ton of them out of the rocket as it descends after launch. We’re also working on dropping some modified smoke bombs out to help ULA with the wind directions to find the rocket after it lands. I’ll keep you updated on my team’s progress! We launch the end of July! There’s so much to get done before then!