NASA OSAM-1
Background
I am very proud to have personally worked on NASA’s OSAM-1. Despite program difficulties, this project was by far the most complex and ambitious I’ve tackled so far.
OSAM-1 is a robotic spacecraft with the primary goal of autonomously grappling and refueling LANDSAT-7, thus extending the life of a satellite that was not originally designed to do so.
Although I’d be super excited to talk about the program in detail - I am somewhat limited due to an NDA and ITAR restrictions. Everything on this page is compliant.
My work on the program
My primary focus was on the OSAM-1 Robotic Servicing Arm, although later on at my time at Maxar, I would shift focus to the SPIDER arm. This NASA contract involved an integrated team approach - although NASA and Maxar were separate entities, the teams at Maxar were effectively treated as part of the team at GSFC. As such, I was given an amazing opportunity to work right alongside - and learn from - the GSFC Exploration & In-space Services (NExIS) team.
With such a small team, I had to wear many hats - which give me a lot of chances to grow!
My growth in roles throughout the program:
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As I became more experienced in the
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Training at Goddard Space Flight Center
About a year into the program, I was selected by the project manager at Maxar to be trained in Environmental Testing. I was brought up to speed by the contamination control team at GSFC, and shadowed the work of one of the engineers there.
A GSFC thermal vacuum chamber. I would later find myself to have to become very familiar with these systems!
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