The Unacceptable Risks : 2017

tUR has been lucky enough to have opportunities to meet a some fantastic people during our projects. This summer we had a few invitations to visit people and tour their facilities, but since we were running from one project to the next, and trying to balance busy lives with pet projects, we couldn't find the time to make it work. When we picked RAM from all of the projects pitched, I sent an inquiry to the Satellite Servicing Projects Division to see if they ever allowed tours of their facility. I was so pleased when Peter Sooy called me to say that they did! It didn't make sense to go to Goddard without seeing Paul Mirel at PIPER. And man, if we were heading up that way it would be great to go to Langley and finally see SAGE III, the inspiration for GOAT. We tacked on a visit to one of the HASP teams at the University of Maryland and our crazy plan blossomed into a whirlwind Mid-Atlantic Tour.

Thursday we all got up and drove to Hampton, VA and met at a Barnes and Noble. I lied to the students so that we'd get there early enough to make it to the Visitor Center on time. From there we were scooped up by Kristyn Damadeo who was our cat herder for the day. She was lovely and we're making her an honorary member of the team.

I honestly had no idea what to expect from this tour. I assumed it would be similar to my summer visit to Langley and cover the same ground. Instead, we visited all new spots and it exceeded my already high expectations in every regard. The students were buzzing the entire time and I'm sure we overwhelmed some of the people we spoke with.

Hopefully some of the students will post their own perspectives on the experience. We have a vast photo album from this trip and I'd love it if they shared some of the things they learned. I'm just going to hit an overview.

We saw three wind tunnels and they blew our minds. Get it? See, I made a joke about, well...you know like...wind...blows...SIGH.

But seriously, we saw a lot of incredible machinery and the thing that struck me as being so cool...was the cryogenic wind tunnel...HAHAHA another joke. I'm sorry, I'm very tired...the thing that was so cool was that the majority of our tour wasn't about NASA science and engineering, it was about the staggering scope of the tools that NASA uses to support their science and engineering. We saw wind tunnels, shakers, an array of thermal vacs, clean rooms, and other testing facilities and when you see these resources and how clever they are you can really get a feel for what makes NASA the gold standard for technology.

The scale of the tools we saw was also a bit staggering. Everything just seemed huge.

One of my favorite things about NASA are the signs, which deserve their own post, but I also adore the mixture of high tech and low tech. I have a special fondness for antique items that are still functional, and appreciate the aesthetic of the 1960's NASA decor.

We were all a bit giddy in this vintage control room. I'm not sure our guide knew what to do with us.

Can we take a picture with your fabulous wall?

We were total space tourists the entire trip.

We had the chance to visit one of the engineers who worked on SAGE III and see a mock up of it. SAGE III studies gases in the stratosphere, and when we were doing preliminary research for GOAT we read a lot of articles from this project.

We visited the mission control room where they monitor SAGE on the ISS.

I have a day dream where I'm back in this room running my own mission with these people.

After Langley we ate a delicious dinner on the water and talked about the day. The students were bowled over by the tour and could not believe how lucky we were to see so much in one day.

After dinner we drove to Beltsville, MD to get ready to visit NASA Goddard in the morning. The Bull City was energized and ready for another big day. It even snowed part of the day which just served to make it seem even more like a dream.

Our first stop was the Satellite Servicing Projects Division where we weren't allowed to take any photos. We saw how they are making an arm to refuel an ageing satellite and learned a few things to add to our HASP application that was due at midnight! We learned that only two of the satellites that are currently operational have been built with an eye toward servicing, and that the rest of them are going to be a challenge to maintain. We were pleased to see some of the parallels between what we were doing with our HASP project and the work actually being done at Goddard. I don't think we realized how cutting edge or ambitious this project was when we decided on it.

We asked so many questions that we were allowed to go upstairs and spend some time with their 7 DOF robot arm that is similar to the one we hope to build. Once again, we learned more information that will help us for HASP.

Then it was time to go back to Jimmy's old stomping grounds.

We swarmed Jimmy's mentor and beloved industry partner, Paul Mirel in his office.

We had lunch with Paul and saw the results of some of Jimmy's summer work and the PIPER test flight. We ate in the NASA cafeteria, I visited my favorite clock, we got a ton of cool swag, and once again learned a lot new things. By this point our brains were swimming with ideas and information.

We decamped to the library (!!!) to siphon off some of what we had learned into a document so that we wouldn't entirely lose all of it due to our limited post-final pre-HASP deadline infiltration capacity. We also took the opportunity to add a couple of photos, sweep our HASP application, and send it off to LSU.

It always feels good when we accidentally end up working on OUR NASA work at NASA. Giddy with relief, we took off to the gift store, and bought everything that wasn't nailed down.

The last leg of the tour was the aerospace department at the University of Maryland. You know when you visit someone at their house and it's so much fancier and tidier than yours, like orders of magnitude nicer than the hovel you just realized you live in, and you walk into the living room and they are like, "Oh gosh. Pardon the mess," and you don't know if you should laugh or cry?

That was us at UMD.

In addition to their robot arms, neutral buoyancy pool, command module, test suits, drone batting cage, and HAB program, they also have a passionate and dedicated faculty. It was certainly the cherry on the top of the tour.

Tomorrow we'll be back at work in the DSBF, our cozy little science fort, getting started on building our HASP robot arm! We enjoyed our Space-cation but we're ready to get back to our work. No rest for the wicked. We COULD rest, but we don't feel like it.