About The Lab

The Student Space Programs Laboratory (SSPL) at the Pennsylvania State University allows undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to design, fabricate, and integrate space systems. SSPL provides hands-on projects to apply classroom knowledge to real world, interdisciplinary settings. SSPL students experience working through a complete design cycle and must develop a systems engineering mind-set in addition to their component-level experience.

Founded in August 2006, SSPL united a long history of student space projects at Penn State. In the past, Penn State students have delivered payloads for multiple high-altitude balloons, microgravity experiments, sounding rockets, and space shuttle “Get Away Specials.” Because of the synergies between projects’ development and because of the number and complexity of the projects, the need for a central management structure and systems engineering framework was evident.

SSPL exists to coordinate current Penn State student space projects and to expose students to the systems engineering process rarely seen in engineering classrooms. The organization facilitates the sharing of resources between projects, effective recruiting to engage students, and improved capabilities to attract future student opportunities. The lab also coordinates education and public outreach to inspire younger students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.


Facilities

Fabrication, integration, and testing are critical phases of any mission. SSPL is focused on both developing in-house facilities to meet these needs and on extending our capabilities by partnering with other organizations on the Penn State campus.

The Infrastructure Development Program is tasked with developing new capabilities to meet the needs of future missions.

The following are current facilities that are within SSPL or facilities that SSPL students have access to:


Anechoic Chamber

The 10 foot x 20 foot anechoic chamber allows for the testing and verification of antenna designs.


Center for Engineering Design and Entrepreneurship (CEDE)

CEDE is a flexible facility for students to develop their technical and professional skills through design based learning. The Center fosters collaboration between engineering and business colleges in partnership with industry to use the enter’s facilities to design, construct and test engineering solutions to actual problems. The Center also supports critical software tools, hardware, computer networks, and data/audio/video conferencing technologies for collaboration and design.

 

 

Model Shop:

  • Light wood-shop tools
  • Drills, saws, sanders, and various hand tools
  • Construction space

Two Computer Classrooms

  • Video Conferencing via PictureTel and ProShare
  • ProE/ProM, IDEAS, ABAQUS, ANSYS, Unigraphics, IronCAD, AutoCAD LT

Three Flexible Technology Classrooms

  • Video/voice/data conferencing capabilities

Two Design Studios

  • Workbenches, hand tools for light assembly/disassembly
  • Electrical measurement and testing equipment
  • Data acquisition with LabView


Clean Room

11-foot by 13-foot, Class 100,000 clean room used for assembling student spacecraft.


Collaboration Tools

  • Adobe Connect Professional (Formerly Macromedia Breeze) Using Adobe Connect, SSPL members can join a live, on-line meeting from any where in the world. A meeting can have as few as two or as many as several hundred attendees.
    In a meeting, you can see and hear various types of media, such as a live video broadcast of the Presenter, a Microsoft Power Point presentation, or a video. In real time, Presenters can demonstrate software on the computer or use a whiteboard to draw or annotate images or text.
  • Document Server The SSPL Document Server provides for an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services to connect people, information, processes, and systems across all SSPL Programs.
    SSPL uses this server to create a knowledge base from past projects, a configuration and baseline management tool, version control, and a repository for standardized processes and procedures used for design, integration and testing.


Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory

The Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory (CSSL) is an interdisciplinary and intercollege component of Penn State’s Department of Electrical Engineering. Founded in 1949 by Arthur H. Waynick as the Ionosphere Research Laboratory (IRL), it became the Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory in 1985 because of the diversity of its research activities.
CSSL educational and research activities center on electromagnetic (EM) phenomena either directly or as tools for probing the structure and dynamics of the atmosphere and ionosphere. For example, we are using a variety of radar, lidar, radiometer, and rocket-borne probing techniques to investigate atmospheric and ionospheric processes and coupling between atmospheric regions. Much of the instrumentation is conceived, designed, and built in-house. CSSL is also concerned with the study of EM phenomena, such as pulse propagation and scattering in a variety of media, and with the design of antennas. We utilize an array of computer codes to study EM processes and to visualize these and other processes.


Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory (Machine Shop)

“The Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory is a hands-on learning facility of the College of Engineering. Occupying 3500 sq.ft on the west campus, it provides state of the art manufacturing and prototyping facilities. Its mission is to help students develop common sense, and gain practical experience in the art of engineering. It is used by over 2000 students annually.”

Almost all of the student-built structure and mechanisms for past projects were machined at the Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory. It continues to be a valuable asset to future projects. Its capabilities are as follows:

Machining:

  • Three-axis Bridgeport CNC Machining Center (Torq-Cut V22)
  • Two Bridgeport Series II milling machines with digital readout (DRO)
  • Bridgeport EZ-Trak CNC/Manual vertical mill
  • Two 14″ South Bend 1440 lathes with DRO
  • 10″ South Bend lathe
  • Wilton drill press
  • Drills, saws, sanders, and various hand tools
  • Construction space 
Welding:

  • TIG
  • MIG
  • arc
  • gas
  • plasma cutter
Rapid Prototyping:

  • Helisys LOM 1015
  • Statasys FDM 2000
  • Zcorp Z402
Assembly/Test:

  • Hardness tester
  • Workbenches
  • Hydraulic press
  • Arbor press
  • Hand tools
  • Hand held power tools

Sheet Metal Forming – 48″ shear, brake, roller
Stock Cutoff and Grinding

– cutoff saw, Powermatic band saw, Wilton belt sander, pedestal grinder, surface grinder, bead blaster


PCB Fabrication

While most flight Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are contracted to a PCB manufacturer, multiple PCB prototyping systems allow for quick prototypes before going to final production. SSPL uses the Quick Circuit 5000 Prototyping System with the following specifications:

Quick Circuit 5000 Prototyping System

  • One or two layer boards
  • 5-mil (1 mil = 1/1000 inches) minimum trace width
  • 0.25-mil resolution
  • 8,000 – 24,000 rpm spindle
  • 10 inch × 13 inch working area 

Satellite Ground Station

The Lab is developing its own satellite tracking ground station. The ground station is being built from the ground up entirely by students. Currently, the lab possesses one tracking parabolic antenna and is in the final stages of acquiring three radome SeaTel antenna. With these resources available, Penn State can network with other universities within the United State as well as Europe, in becoming a very powerful node in network of ground stations. The ground station network provides an opportunity for each node to track and receive data from university and professional satellites.


Thermal Cycling

Temperature Chamber

  • 7-ft3 chamber area (dimensions 24″ W × 21″ H × 24″ D)
  • Can test components between -73 °C to +175 °C
  • Programmable profile
  • Labview interface for customized testing profile


Vacuum Chamber System

Vacuum Chamber

  • 60-cm diameter ×100-cm
  • Capable of pressures as low as 10-7 torr
  • BOC Edwards E100L Dry Pump (no oil; safe for optics and other sensitive instruments)
  • CTI Cryogenics Cryo-Torr High Vacuum Pump

Ultra-Low Temp Recirculation

  • -90 °C to +150 °C
  • Constant-flow, clean, ultra-low temp coolant

Plasma Source

  • LEPS 250 Plasma Source
  • Capable of Xe, Ar, Kr, Ne, or N2
  • 2–20 eV ion energy, <1 eV e- energy