Manufacturing methodology enhancements for space systems hardware fabrication

摘要

NASA satellite missions involve design, fabrication and assembly of numerous complex systems, subsystems, and instruments and require a large team of scientists and engineers. JHU/APL fosters a culture of continuous improvement and the design solutions rarely replicate themselves. In this unique environment, the hardware manufacturing team was challenged with enhancing fabrication and assembly methodologies while also improving automation, quality and high density design techniques. The team also needed to manage the risk associated with manufacturing space flight designs that have limited heritage and little relevant historical build data. If we can understand and quantify the variations and improvements in overall hardware development that various work centers have achieved based on these enhancements, we may be able to define a correlation with reduced risk, improved quality and fewer schedule delays for future programs. After infusing the JHU/APL facilities with an array of state-of-the-art hardware manufacturing and assembly equipment, we subsequently produced a large satellite system and numerous instruments for space flight missions. A detailed analysis of data from a past large satellite system build carried out prior to these enhancements will be compared and contrasted with the data obtained from these most recent builds.