Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Flight Deck of the Future

Welcome!  We are seniors studying Mechanical Engineering at Kansas State University.  The purpose of this blog is to document our process of designing a partial, reconfigurable habitat for NASA which is based on their ideals of the Flight Deck of the Future.

First, as with any good first impression, allow us to introduce ourselves.  Five of us are collaborating on this team, assigned to the NASA project for our Senior Design class.  

From left to right:  Aaron, Amy, Chris, Adam, Rachel.  Below are some more pictures of our brainstorming process.  

Next, an explanation of the project is in due order.  The Flight Deck of the Future is NASA’s vision of the “next generation of manned spacecraft.”  It is to be a fusion of human interface and advancing technologies, referred to as Human- Systems Integration (HSI) methodology.  We are designing, building, and delivering a habitat to Johnson Space Center in Houston which will allow for the testing of new concepts and technologies.

The overall view of this habitat is one of a familiar cylindrical shape, but NASA would like for the frame to be able to change diameter (10 to 17 feet in range).  In addition, the frame should be able to be mounted in both a horizontal and vertical configuration.  Luckily for us, the cylinder can be approximated with flat sections, or panels, up to 2.5 feet in length.  The specifications particular to the internal structure of the habitat include:

·         three fold down control stations
·         one fold down table
·         three windows
·         easy, accessible mounting for loose hardware
·         two racks for electronics
·         one crew exam table for telemedicine
·         charging station for electronics (cable management)
·         three shelves

 All of this requirements should be movable, in order to reconfigure the habitat as need (or desire) be.  The last major item to be addressed is the main structure itself.  The frame of the cylindrical habitat should be able to withstand a 200 lb bump, have a factor of safety of 3 for yield and of 4 for ultimate.

We will continue with updates on how we are tackling this exciting, albeit challenging, project.  So, as they say, to the drawing board!  

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