Psyche Hall Thruster Diagnostics Visualization

Overview

This summer, NASA is launching a new mission to visit an asteroid named Psyche in orbit between Mars and Jupiter. The mission is utilizing Hall Thrusters to propel the spacecraft to and around the asteroid once it is out of Earth’s orbit. These Hall Thrusters are newer technology being developed for space travel. There is a need for education about the diagnostics (testing tools) used on the thrusters prior to launch.

Objectives

Our objective is to educate people about these Hall Thruster diagnostics who have at least a middle school reading level and basic knowledge of atoms and ions. In order to be as inclusive as possible we are ADA compliant and hosting the project on a website that anyone with internet access can find and learn from.

Approach

• Met with industry mentor to obtain user requirements
• Engineered system requirements to satisfy user requirements
• Considered technologies, frameworks, libraries to fulfil requirements
  • Blender – a three-dimensional modelling tool
  • js – a three-dimensional renderer and animating library
  • Unity – a game engine considered for rendering/animating
• Created diagrams to plan structure and architecture of project
• Created three-dimensional representations of the diagnostics
• Sent models and explanations to industry mentor for confirmation
  • Revised models and explanations based off of mentor’s feedback
• Created website to host three-dimensional representations
• Performed thorough testing on the system to ensure functionality

Outcomes

Over the course of two semesters, we have created an interactive and educational website that displays the diagnostics performed on Hall Thrusters. The effects from our website are as follows:

• May increase interest in the Psyche mission
• Educate and inspire younger generation to become involved in STEM
• Use tool to help explain complicated diagnostics with ease.
• Make learning an enjoyable process that users want to do.