6.1: Synopsis
Boston University, as well as several other organizations, will partially SPECTRE. Several parties within BU will be cost-sharing SPECTRE, including the Department of Astronomy, the Department of Space Physics, and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who has generously waived overhead charges. The Wellesley effort will be supported through existing funds. Outside organizations, including Hellma Inc. and Amptek Inc., are supporting the project through lower costs and donations.
6.2: Facilities
Many conventional missions have developed facilities that are used by subsequent missions. For the SLP program, however, such development is not prudent. In fact, to meet the 16 month hardware development schedule within the budgetary constraints, it is vital that all major facilities are in place. The SPECTRE project has been tailored so that no major facility development is necessary. All design, development, integration, and calibration facilities necessary to the project are available at Boston University.
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6.2.1: The Scientific Instrumentation Facility
The scientific instrumentation facility is housed in the Physics Research Building at BU. This 5,000 foot climate-controlled facility is a well-equipped machine shop with a staff of eight machinists and an assembly team of three technicians. All the mechanical parts for the SPECTRE project will be fabricated at this machine shop. The workshop has designed and fabricated instruments for use on both BU and non-BU projects. It contains an extensive machining facility, milling and lathe power tools, and other various metal working instruments [Fig. 8]
6.2.2: The Electronics Design Facility
The BU Electronics Design Facility will provide a workshop for building of critical components, subsystems, and other electronics. It contains extensive equipment well suited for specialized instrument design. In addition, it also has a clean room and radiometric calibration facility [Fig. 9] which provides a sterilized environment for calibration. The full facility is approximately 1200 sq.ft., and includes a 200 sq.ft. darkroom, a 200 sq.ft. class 10,000 clean room, vacuum tanks, and 250 sq.ft. of workspace. Inside the cleanroom is a class 100 flow bench and a motorized crane, which holds the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing feeds.
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6.2.3: Computing Facilities
The Department of Astronomy and Center for Space Physics share a combined DEC/Sun systems acting as servers to a set of UNIX workstations and PC's. A campus network links all terminals and workstations to other on-campus computers and the Internet. The university has full networking to every office and laboratory. The SPECTRE team has several Sun Microsystems workstations, PC systems, a Sparcstation-670 MP file server, and a DEC Alphastation 250 file server. These workstations are supported by several laser printers, read-write optical drives, and a DAT.
6.3: Industrial Partners
Amptek Inc. is donating two instruments for the experiment, the XR-100T X-Ray Detector and the MD-501 Amptektron Channel Electron Multiplier. BARR Associates, a division of Amptek, will also be providing instrumentation and assistance. The MMS-UV Spectrometer and other components will be purchased from Hellma Inc.
6.4: Personnel
There are five undergraduate students who are part of AS231: Astronomy from Space. They are also the core team of SPECTRE. All of them will be involved in the project's development.
Jerasimos Ballas, a freshman in the Honors Program at the BU College of Arts and Sciences, is in charge of the technical workings of the SPECTRE project. He is a premedical student with interests in chemistry, art, and astronomy.
Jennifer Baskin, a freshman studying experimental psychology in the Honors Program, will be in charge of the management, controlling the budget and planning a time schedule. Her interests include music theatre.
Michael Nardi, a freshman in the Honors Program, will aid in the educational objectives related to SPECTRE. He is premed with an interest in history and acting.
David Nghiem, is the project manager, and coordinates the entire project. He oversees each aspect and ensures that everything runs smoothly. He is currently a junior in the College of Engineering, majoring in Biomedical Engineering and minoring in international relations, with a long time interest in astronomy, space related activities, and international relations.
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Anthony Turvey is a graduate student in the College of Engineering, and will design and build the microcontroller. He is majoring in electrical engineering.
Jamie Yost (photograph unavailable), a freshman psychology and music double major, also in the Honors Program, will be involved in public relations. Her interests include writing and the performing arts.
The advisors who are participating in the project are:
Prof. Thomas Bifano is an Associate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the College of Engineering. He will supervise the students developing the mechanical components of SPECTRE.
Prof. Supriya Chakrabarti, is the principal investigator of the SPECTRE project. He is the professor of AS231: Astronomy from Space, and will maintain overall responsibility of the project.
Prof. Mark Horenstein is an Associate Professor and Associate Chairman for Undergraduate Studies in the College of Engineering. He will supervise the electrical systems development by the students of the Senior Design Project class.
Prof. William Oliver is an Associate Professor in the College of Engineering. He will advise on the data analysis and atmospheric modelling activities.
Prof. Glenn Stark is a Professor of Physics at Wellesley College. His group will assist in calibration and data analysis.
Valerie Taylor is a mechanical engineer in Prof. Chakrabarti's group, performed the preliminary rocket accommodations study. She is currently developing a sounding rocket payload (36.133), and will be available to the team for consultation.
