Presented by:
Wendy Morgenstern, Code 599, OSAM-1 Mission Systems Engineer
Thursday, October 6, 2022 - 1:00pm (ET)
WebEx
Meeting number: 2762 070 7439
Password: SES@NaSA22
Join by phone
+1-415-527-5035 US Toll
+1-929-251-9612 USA Toll 2
Access code: 276 207 07439
Abstract:
On-orbit Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM)-1 is one of NASA’s most ambitious technology demonstration missions. The seminar will discuss the particular engineering
challenges of building designs on the bleeding edge of technology, or, how to adapt a systems when it’s possible you may be wrong.
Links: OSAM-1 website: https://nexis.gsfc.nasa.gov/osam-1.html which includes the embedded videos and our information on enabling technologies.
For our place in the pantheon of NASA Tech demo missions you can reference the Technology Demonstration Mission (TDM): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/main/index.html
You’ll find OSAM-1 under EXPLORE: Transformative Missions and Discoveries
Biography:
Full Name: Wendy Moore Morgenstern
Hometown (City,State): Marion, VA
What influenced your career choice? I always loved math. Then, thanks to my high school physics teacher, Coach Sturgill, I discovered math in motion and started chasing a STEM career. I was lucky enough to intern for the Brunswick Engineering Corporation and for NASA/Langley Research Center while still in high school, and I was hooked. I earned my private pilot’s license by age 16. This led me to freshman engineering at Virginia Tech and a three year internship at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. I’m very lucky that what I decided to do when I was sixteen years old turned out to be exactly what I wanted to do, thirty-five years later. I joined NASA permanently in 1994 as an aerospace engineer.
Career Highlights: My first assignment at Goddard was control analyst for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), following that project from design, integration and test of the observatory. I traveled to Japan for integration to the Japanese HII rocket for our launch from Tanegashima. That mission improved our knowledge of tropical weather and hurricane predictions, directly saving hundreds of lives a year.
From tropical weather, I moved on to sunnier challenges, serving as the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Attitude Control Subsystem Lead for six years, leading a team through the design, build, integration and test of a redundant attitude control system. Among my many responsibilities were leading the Maneuver team that delivered the Observatory to its final orbit, as well as leading the on-orbit jitter testing, characterizing the Observatory on-orbit response to all mechanical disturbances.
From studying the solar weather, my next assignment was working with the scientists that study our magnetosphere that protects Earth from solar particles, as the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission’s guidance, navigation and control lead, responsible for design, building and operating the attitude, orbit, propulsion systems. MMS is a four spacecraft constellation that we fly in a pyramid formation. By comparing data from four identical instrument suites, we can directly measures the curl of the Faraday equations describing electromagnetic. Calculus in space!
I love working with the scientists. I have to listen with every muscle in my body to understand their proposed experiments and engineer a system that can capture the required observational data.
My current role is the lead engineer for On-orbit Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM-1). Our mission will autonomously rendezvous and capture another satellite midorbit. Then, we’ll refuel it midflight and boost it to a new orbit to resume its mission. After Servicing, we start Assembly, robotically building a large antenna from pieces and, finally, Manufacturing a beam, with a 3-D printer working in the vacuum of space. Google us to see our robots build things in space!
Hobbies and Interests: Reading, target shooting, cooking, gardening, history. My husband and I actively participate in historical recreation for the medieval, Renaissance and Elizabethan time periods and spend a lot of time researching material culture from other eras, which makes for a nice break from cutting edge engineering. We have three cats that boss us around during our leisure hours.
Education:
- Marion Senior High School. Marion, VA 24354.
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute & Statue University. Blacksburg, VA, B.S. in Aerospace Engineering.
- University of Maryland, College Park. M.S. in Aerospace Engineering with a Special Interest in Controls.