COmmercialization of Kennedy Space Center Instrumentation Developed to Improve Safety, reliability, and COst effectiveness of Space SHuttle processing, Launch, and Lnading

摘要

The top priority at Kennedy space Center is safety fo the flight crew and shuttle vehicle. This priority si followed by safety fo the personnel and physical assets of KSC, and reducing the costs associated with processing the shuttle and other flight components, driven by budget and down sizing pressures. The KSC Instrumentation Laboratories, managedand staffed by both civil service NASA personnel and by I-NET, the Engineering support Contractor, help ensure the accomplishment of these priorities by adapting or developing technologies to improve operational safety and devrease processing costs. The laboratories are organized by technical discipline into nine laboratoy teams, each being generally self ocntained with highly skilled scientists, engineers, and technicians providingtheskills necessary to ocnceive, develop and test innovative technical solutions. The laboratories are the Hazarodus Gas Detection laboratory specializing in the detection of cryogenic propellants using mass spectrometer-based instruments; the Toxic Vapor Detection laboratory providing very low level detection capabilities for highly toxic hypergolic propellants and other chemicals; the landing aids laboratory which developes navigation and positioningsystems to calibrate shuttle landing guidance systems; the Optical instrumentation laboatory specializing in development of low cost optical and ultrasonic instrumnet; the Transducer Development laboratory which provides sustatining engineering for the KSC inventory of process measurements; the contamination monitoring Laboratory which develops and tests clean room monitoring systems.