Author: Ben Harp | Major: Mechanical Engineering & Physics | Semester: Fall 2024

Testing Apparatus

My name is Ben Harp, and I am a Mechanical Engineering and Physics major doing research under Dr. Adam Huang in mechanical engineering. This was my 3rd semester of research with Dr. Huang on a project involving satellite sensors. I plan on going to graduate school for aerospace engineering.

My lab focuses on research to do with CubeSatellites. CubeSats are a type of small satellite built based on a standard cube. My research involves designing a sensor system so that the satellites can determine their orientation in space. There are strict power, mass, and financial limitations for this system to my goal is to optimize the use of small low cost sensors. To test this system, I spent the last semester designing a prototyping a testing apparatus.

I chose to do research with Dr. Huang because he is the professor in mechanical engineering that is most focused on aerospace research. I reached out to him over email, and we met to decide on a research project. I didn’t love the first project that I was working on, so I moved to another and have been working on it for the past three semesters. I chose my project because it was very relevant to the content I was learning in my courses as well as the path that I would like my career to take.

The first semester of my research, I spent all of my time learning how the satellite worked and how to use the software to drive the on-board computers. After that, I spent the next semester starting to optimize the sensors. I spent a couple of months working on it before I realized that doing what I was doing would not achieve my desired results. I spent the next couple of weeks working with Dr. Huang to determine a better way to test and resolve the problems with the sensors. From then on, I have spent all of my time designing and testing a new apparatus. One of the most challenging aspects of working with CubeSats is the need to maintain reliability while working within significant constraints. The sensors I’m developing must be able to withstand the harsh conditions of space. These conditions include extreme temperature variations and radiation exposure. The tough part is withstanding these conditions while still providing accurate orientation data. The testing apparatus I designed simulates these conditions as closely as possible within our lab, allowing us to verify the robustness of our sensor system before deployment.

For the next semester and beyond I plan to complete various tests on my system and publish my findings. I also plan on taking my research to a student conference in Dallas. My primary goal is the publishing of my work. In order to be competitive for grad school, I would like to have an official publication to show for my research. I went to a similar conference last year and met tons of students and professionals within my field.