Paper Satellites: Mechanical Engineer Workshop

Step Aside Paper Airplanes – We’re Making Paper Satellites!

Presented by: Joy Stafford-Evans, Senior Project Specialist/Mechanical Engineer, Physical Sciences, Inc.

Workshop Description

Engineering is all about compromise.  You need to balance between cost to manufacture, functions your device needs to perform, life time of the product, ease of servicing, what the customer wants (which isn’t always what they need) and what the manufacturer can provide.  If you are designing consumer products, you also need to consider what is in fashion, what’s the latest fad.  Even the color is carefully studied. 

We will learn about engineering compromise by designing a satellite.  We will design our satellites to be made from different types of paper.  By making decisions between different material and how we will put it together we have the opportunity to design a variety of configurations.  Then we will build our designs.  Finally we will put the satellites through a series of tests to determine which group had the best overall design.  

There are many possible combinations of material and how we put it together.  There isn’t one “right” way.   A good engineer will look at the list of requirements and come up with a good design that is usually a compromise that meets all of them.

Leader’s Job Description

I am a mechanical engineer that works at a Research and Development company.  Most of Physical Sciences is staffed by scientist of various disciplines; Physics, Chemistry, Physical Chemists, Biologists, and others.  The scientists develop new instruments for various customers.  Some of our customers are: the military, medical professionals, environmental scientists, and NASA, as well as other companies. 

A customer will ask us to develop a new instrument to do a specific function.  Or many just have a problem they need to solve, we will figure out how to solve it and what kind of equipment is needed.  Most times we are only building a one of a kind instrument.  Sometime we are designing an instrument that the customer wants to sell to other companies or individuals.   We design and build the first one, and show them how to build many.  As a mechanical engineer, I make sure that the instrument will perform the job it was designed to do, in the environment it needs to work.  This might be in a lab, a factory, in the desert, in the mountains or even in space. I make sure all the parts work together and can be serviced or adjusted as necessary. 

I am also responsible for any testing that needs to be done to be sure the instrument will work in extreme conditions, such as at –4° F or 140° F, after it gets launched into space on a rocket, on up a 100 Ft pole in the middle of the forest in the Green Mountains in Vermont.  Thing I have build need to work under all kinds of conditions.  A lot of the instruments that Physical Sciences builds are using different types of light to operate.  And with light, you need optics, similar to eye glasses.  These are fragile, so the mechanical case needs to be strong enough to protect the delicate optics.

Advice for Career Path

In high school and junior high it’s important to take as much math and science as you can.  Also take a variety of type of science courses, physics, biology, chemistry.  That way you will have a better idea if one field interests you more than others.  Engineering is the application of different scientific disciplines.  Mechanical engineering involves a lot of physics and geometry, but other things are important also.  Since I need to work with a lot of different type of scientists and other types of engineers, a broad background has helped me a lot.

Another thing that is very important for an engineer is problem solving.  Any hobby that makes you thing about how you want to do something will help build this skill.  Any type of crafts, or sewing, or woodworking that requires working with your hands, following basic instructions, but where there is a lot of opportunity to “do it your own way” will help with this.   You have to be able to read the directions and compare the way you want to do the task that might be different and think whether or not your ideas are possible or practical.

Science and Engineering are also at the forefront of technology.  So reading science fiction will help you always be thinking a little beyond what is currently possible.  Today’s fiction is tomorrow’s science.