Orbital Launch Vehicle Team
Orbital Launch Vehicle Team (OLVT) is a student-run design team at Virginia Tech. Their goal is to design, build, and fly a rocket to deliver a 5 kg payload into low earth orbit. Currently, the team is pursuing a 100 km space shot and working to refine designs on a smaller scale prior to this launch.
OLVT's most recent launch to 30,000 ft, assembled and launched using procedures system implemented by Noah in 2020
Noah joined the team as a freshman in 2018 as a founding member of the Launch Operations subteam. After a fairly slow first year, he was elected subteam lead, determined to bring Launch Operations up to the level required for large-scale launches. As a lead, he created a week-by-week plan for designing a launch tower, a project that had previously stalled. The final design and analysis verified that the tower is capable of lifting a 20 ft tall, 500 lb rocket from horizontal to vertical, and supporting it during launch.
After the successful design and presentation of the launch tower before the team's faculty and industry review board, he shifted his focus to procedures. The team was lacking any formal assembly or launch procedures. This was leading to disorganized launches with last-second changes to the design, driven by "rocket fever", a term used to describe the "get it done at all costs" mentality. Taking inspiration from procedures used by NASA Wallops sounding rocket launches, Noah created a standardized format for the procedures. He also implemented spreadsheets and naming conventions to track the hundreds of documents and created a tutorial document to teach new members about how this system works.
In addition to overseeing the creation of individual subteam procedures, Noah created and maintained master procedures for each launch. These were used for integration to ensure each individual subteam's procedures meshed together. Noah broke down the entire assembly and launch procedures by subteam and determined critical dependencies (e.g. the Avionics subteam needs to finish wiring the electronics bay before structures can install it to the rocket). This allowed him to create master procedures optimized for efficiency; all subteams can work in parallel while trading off components as tasks are started or completed.
This system was successfully used to guide the assembly and launch of Test Turkey, the team's primary rocket at the time. The rocket's maiden flight was to ~6,000 ft and its second flight up to ~30,000 ft. One of the final improvements Noah made to the procedures system was to automate the formatting. The procedures require strict formatting to ensure that on launch day, they are exceedingly clear and easy to use. This results in hundreds of manhours spent ensuring that basic stylistic elements fit the formatting, a task that could be automated. Noah cocreated a python script that takes a .CSV spreadsheet and converts it to a fully formatted LaTeX document. The team now can focus on the content of the procedures instead of spending time on formatting.
After 2 years of Launch Operations leadership, Noah is now Vice President for the group. As Vice President, he works on macro-level project management. He ensures each subteam is communicating effectively so that each aspect of the rocket can be integrated successfully. By setting clear and attainable short and long-term goals, he guides the team forward. Currently, the team is working on designing and flying small-scale rockets to rapidly iterate different space-flight technologies required for their 100 km space shot launch.
Senior Capstone Project
Sponsored by Northrop Grumman, Noah's senior design project is to create a vacuum-rated robot arm. This robot arm must support a 6 kg payload and maintain .1 mm accuracy at a 1-meter reach. To meet these specifications while remaining cost-effective, the team designed a SCARA style robot arm using 8020 aluminum rail and off-the-shelf hardware. Custom sheet metal brackets are used to mount motors and connect certain linkages.
As team lead, Noah led the team through brainstorming, concept generation and down-selection, creating the final concept, and CAD. He kept the team organized and on track to meet critical deadlines, including two major reports and presentations. He also focused on the design for the linear Z-axis joint, including mechanical design, force analysis, and sourcing parts and manufacturers. He created high-quality renderings of the final design using Blender.
In the spring, Noah worked on the manufacturing of this design. Using in-depth knowledge of a wide variety of machine shop tools, he has fabricated many of the custom components required by their design. He also solved complex problems regarding the motor's hall sensors. Many motors had broken sensors from the cleaning process. After diagnosing the issue using an oscilloscope and multimeter, Noah created Arduino code that replaces the faulty sensors. By using interrupts to read the high-speed encoder data, Noah was able to successfully 'spoof' the faulty sensors, allowing motors to remain operational with the selected motor controllers.
This is just one example of the many challenges Noah has overcome during this project. Click through the photos below to learn more!
Yokohama Tire Internship
Noah spent the summer of 2021 working for Yokohama Tire in Salem, VA. As a mechanical engineering intern, he worked on over 20 designs throughout the summer. He conducted the entire engineering design process; creating, modeling, analyzing, and manufacturing each design. At the end of the summer, Noah created in-depth documentation explaining design choices, assemblies, and future work, to help Yokohama as he transitioned back to school.
Noah also worked with spreadsheets and macros to optimize designs and repetitive tasks. Each month, a new specifications sheet is released. It contains hundreds of rows and columns detailing everything about the sizes and types of tires being produced. Noah created a macro that searches through the sheet and pulls key engineering specifications regarding the maximum and minimum dimensions for that month. For example, at the click of a button the largest width, or smaller inner diameter could be found, reducing time spent searching 2 or 3 letter acronyms for the required dimension.
Noah also created a spreadsheet to aid in fencing installation. 13 fences were being installed along a line of presses. Each press varies slightly in spacing with a ladder that may or may not need to be moved. Noah created a spreadsheet that takes in five numerical inputs of different measurements, considers 13 design criteria, and calculates the position for each fence post and whether or not the ladder needs to be moved. This tool proved valuable in reducing time-consuming calculations and analyzing what-if scenarios.