Goddard Space Flight Center
June 7 – August 13, 2021
Goals of your project/s:
The project’s main goal was to develop a novel solution to combat reaction wheel saturation, tailored explicitly to the EXCLAIM project. This included developing the dynamics for the proposed solution and implementing them into a high-fidelity simulation.
Describe what you did during the internship:
I was responsible for developing and implementing the flight software for the EXCLAIM project.
Did you achieve your goals? What were the results and conclusions?
Yes, the set goals for the project were achieved. Simulations found that with the momentum dumping strategy developed for the EXCLAIM project in place, the reaction wheel never became saturated, with pointing accuracy remaining high. The EXCLAIM momentum dumping strategy effectively prevents reaction wheel saturation while maintaining a high degree of pointing accuracy.
Describe positive lessons learned from this experience:
I learned how to effectively work in a virtual team environment and several strategies for creating defensive code.
Describe negative lessons learned from this experience:
I did not have any.