About the Program
The Olin-NASA partnership was created by Dr. Steve Holt, former director of Space Sciences at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 2004. Dr. Holt is now a professor of physics at The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA.
Eight undergraduate Olin College engineering students hear about a variety of possible projects from NASA scientists. Students select four projects. Each student works in a four-student team on each of two different projects. The program provides an opportunity for students to apply their skills to real-world problems. The work done by students can be continued in a following summer or put into everyday use at Goddard and other NASA facilities.
Summer 2010 Projects
There are four projects in progress this summer. Visit the list of all projects to read about past and present projects conducted by the Olin-NASA Research Group.
XACT Low Voltage Power Source (LVPS) Point Design
Updating Description
Modulated X-Ray Calibration Source (MXS)
We designed and built a controller for a modulated X-ray source (MXS), used to calibrate x-ray astronomy devices. To do this, the MXS uses high-energy photons from a UV LED to generate characteristic x-rays from a source material. Our system allows the user to control the LED flux either by loading a file or using pulse width controls, and our graphical user interface displays housekeeping data relating to the LED and high voltage supply, including such measurements as current, voltage and temperature.
Cloud CubeSat Thermoelectric Cooler Controller
Thermoelectric Cooler Controller Main Project Page
This summer marks the third year that the NASA/Olin summer program will participate in the Cloud CubeSat Project for the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and NASA Goddard Flight Center Climate and Radiation Branch. We are currently creating and implementing a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) control system design that will provide the basis for the system housed on the Cloud CubeSat. We hope to control our temporary TEC to reach a cold plate temperature of 225K in less than 5 minutes with a tolerance of +/-.1K. As part of our final deliverable, we will include an instruction manual of adjustments that must be made to tune our design to the final Marlow TEC.
I-Heliograph
I-Heliograph Main Project Page
Our project goal is to send data using modulated sunlight. In order to do this we have implemented and analyzed the error of two potential transmission systems. The first is camera-based, sensing a computer monitor's brightness using a webcam. Using what we learned from the first system, we designed the second to be a "discrete" system which uses a photodectector to sense the deflected sunlight from a speaker-driven mirror rig (similar to a traditional heliograph.