Location
Holiday Inn, Manatee Room A
Start Date
1-5-1997 1:00 PM
Description
The top priority at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is safety of the flight crew and Shuttle vehicle. This priority is followed by safety of the personnel and physical assets of KSC, and reducing the costs associated with processing the Shuttle and other flight components, driven by budget and down sizing pressures. The KSC Instrumentation Laboratories, managed and staffed by both civil service NASA personnel and by I-NET, the Engineering Support Contractor, help ensure the accomplishment of these priorities by adapting or developing technologies to improve operational safety and decrease processing costs. The Laboratories are organized by technical discipline into nine laboratory teams, each being generally self contained with highly skilled scientists, engineers, and technicians providing the skills necessary to conceive, develop and test innovative technical solutions. The laboratories are the Hazardous Gas Detection Laboratory specializing in the detection of cryogenic propellants using mass spectrometer-based instruments; the Toxic Vapor Detection Laboratory providing very low level detection capabilities for highly toxic hypergolic propellants and other chemicals; the Landing Aids Laboratory which develops navigation and positioning systems to calibrate Shuttle landing guidance systems; the Optical Instrumentation Laboratory specializing in development of low cost optical and ultrasonic instruments; the Transducer Development Laboratory which provides sustaining engineering for the KSC inventory of process measurements; the Contamination Monitoring Laboratory which develops and tests clean room monitoring systems; the Special Instrumentation Laboratory and Special Development Laboratory which each develop and support instruments for non-destructive inspection; and the Data Acquisition Systems Laboratory which provides and develops data acquisition, analysis and recording systems for special tests and permanent installations. These laboratories support all functional areas of KSC and each other in accomplishing a wide range of projects which are improving the techniques involved in processing and testing the flight systems to ensure that the Shuttle remains the prime human space flight system well into the next century.
Paper Session III-A - Commercialization of KSC Instrumentation Developed to Improve Safety, Reliability, and Cost Effectiveness of Space Shuttle Processing, Launch, and Landing
Holiday Inn, Manatee Room A
The top priority at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is safety of the flight crew and Shuttle vehicle. This priority is followed by safety of the personnel and physical assets of KSC, and reducing the costs associated with processing the Shuttle and other flight components, driven by budget and down sizing pressures. The KSC Instrumentation Laboratories, managed and staffed by both civil service NASA personnel and by I-NET, the Engineering Support Contractor, help ensure the accomplishment of these priorities by adapting or developing technologies to improve operational safety and decrease processing costs. The Laboratories are organized by technical discipline into nine laboratory teams, each being generally self contained with highly skilled scientists, engineers, and technicians providing the skills necessary to conceive, develop and test innovative technical solutions. The laboratories are the Hazardous Gas Detection Laboratory specializing in the detection of cryogenic propellants using mass spectrometer-based instruments; the Toxic Vapor Detection Laboratory providing very low level detection capabilities for highly toxic hypergolic propellants and other chemicals; the Landing Aids Laboratory which develops navigation and positioning systems to calibrate Shuttle landing guidance systems; the Optical Instrumentation Laboratory specializing in development of low cost optical and ultrasonic instruments; the Transducer Development Laboratory which provides sustaining engineering for the KSC inventory of process measurements; the Contamination Monitoring Laboratory which develops and tests clean room monitoring systems; the Special Instrumentation Laboratory and Special Development Laboratory which each develop and support instruments for non-destructive inspection; and the Data Acquisition Systems Laboratory which provides and develops data acquisition, analysis and recording systems for special tests and permanent installations. These laboratories support all functional areas of KSC and each other in accomplishing a wide range of projects which are improving the techniques involved in processing and testing the flight systems to ensure that the Shuttle remains the prime human space flight system well into the next century.
