Outpost Mission 2 “Debug As You Go”
Immediately following the completion of Mission 1, we began on Mission 2, which came with an even tighter deadline. This new mission heavily depended on the insights and experience gained from Mission 1. As with the previous mission and being a project for Outpost, I must maintain confidentiality regarding specific design details. Nevertheless, I am able to share a broad overview of my contributions and any publicly released information and visuals about the mission that Outpost has provided.
Outpost Mission 2 was another 3U CubeSat similar to Mission 1 but was “designed to host payloads for customers, and for Mission-2 we will be flying two customer payloads; one for NASA Langley and one for ETH Zurich. NASA Langley has contracted Outpost to develop and fly GasPak: a low mass, cool gas generator developed to support NASA’s inflatable heat shield technology. ETH Zurich will be flying a new GPS system to gain flight heritage.”
Contribution
Similar to my role in Mission 1, I was tasked with designing, manufacturing, and integrating roughly 50% of the CubeSat for Mission 2. Additionally, I had the unique responsibility of designing the GasPak payload, a key component for NASA's involvement in the mission. Beyond this, I developed all the mechanical parts and served as the responsible engineer for the ETH Zurich payload from initial introductions through to its handover to the software engineers for data communication management. I also had the opportunity to go to the SpaceX integration facility in Vandenburg Space Force Base and integrate our satellite. I also had the opportunity to go to the SpaceX integration facility in Vandenburg Space Force Base and integrate our satellite.
Takeaways
My involvement in Mission 2 reinforced the lessons I had learned from Mission 1. Tasks that were once challenging became easier and more instinctive. I had the opportunity to design solutions for new problems under tight deadlines, successfully meeting each challenge. Additionally, this mission provided me with the invaluable experience of designing and operating a payload for a customer.
Further Public Information
All pictures and quotes are credited to Outpost. All information is from Outposts public information.