SENSOR DESIGN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

OVERVIEW:

Our Sensors and Optics Development team works to design and

manufacture high performance electronic and optical sensors for the
world's most advanced launch vehicles and spacecraft. The team
designs sensors ranging from smart digital transducers to sophisticated
tracking laser range finders. These designs range in production
quantities from single unit experimental prototypes to large scale
productions of 1000s of units per year. We are seeking experienced,
innovative electrical engineers to help build the world's next generation
of space transports.
RESPONSIBILITIES:

Electronics design of high reliability, mixed signal circuits including

integrated analog opto-electronics, low noise signal conditioners, and
power supplies.
 Work closely with other hardware, software, manufacturing and
production engineers to develop products from requirements capture
through production, assembly, and testing.
 Assist in the development of automated equipment for production and
test, including qualification and acceptance test procedures.
 Develop world class designs for low cost, high volume, and high
performance systems.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, physics, or similar technical

area of study.
 3 years of experience with the design and production of mixed analog
and digital electronics.
 Experience with high reliability products such as automotive, medical or
aerospace.
 Proficiency with schematic capture, layout, analysis.
 Experience with electronics testing and bring-up.
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

 Advanced techniques: Spectral analysis, real-time processing, sensors,

actuators and control.
 Advanced design: High speed signals, transmission lines, and differential
routing.
 Proficiency with computing tools such as Python, Matlab, and C
 Familiarity with FPGA design and VHDL
 Working understanding of standardized environmental testing
 Experience in a fast-paced test environment with flight hardware or
equivalent
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

 Working extended hours and weekends as needed.

ITAR REQUIREMENTS:

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations,

applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S.,
protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to
obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
ELECTRICAL POWER ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP/CO-OP SUMMER 2017 (CAPE
CANAVERAL)

OVERVIEW:

• SpaceX is currently seeking talented individuals for an internship with our Launch Site
High Power Electrical team. This position requires basic knowledge in electrical power
distribution, as well as CAD graphics skills. Responsibilities include assisting senior
engineers to plan and conduct independent work requiring judgment in the evaluation,
selection, application, and adaptation of engineering techniques, procedures and criteria.
Interns in this department will prepare or modify drawings, specifications, calculations,
charts and graphs, and monitor work for compliance to applicable codes and accepted
engineering practices.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work in a team environment with other engineering disciplines to assist in the

preparation of detailed electrical design and specification for the installation of new
equipment and systems and/or repair and maintenance of existing equipment. This
includes but is no limited to:

o Electrical power distribution systems, including switchgear and motor control centers;
standby and emergency generators; automatic transfer switches; uninterruptible power
supply (UPS) units; and power monitoring hardware and software

o Exterior and interior lighting

o Ground support system controls and ladder logic

o Load flow analysis of electrical power distribution systems

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Must currently enrolled at a four-year university or college pursuing a degree in

electrical engineering OR have completed a degree no more than 6 months ago

• Experience working with power distribution systems, switchgear, uninterruptible power

supplies (UPS) and generators
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Previous experience working as an electrician

• Experience with power coordination studies including Arc Flash

• Ablity to read and understand power and control schematics

• Proficient in Microsoft Excel

• Experience working effectively within a team environment

• Ability to work on multiple tasks concurrently

• High level of self-motivation, with the ability to work under minimal supervision

• Good organizational skills

• Ablity to prioritize and schedule workload

• Excellent communication skills

• A can do attitude with the enthusiasm necessary to work in a unique, fast-paced

environment

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be able to work full time for a minimum of 12 consecutive weeks beginning in
May/June 2017

• Must be willing to work overtime for a total of 50 hours per week with the possibility of
varying schedules in order to complete the job as needed

• Occasional travel may be required

• Must pass Cape Canaveral Air Force Station background check

• To access SpaceX’s facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force base, must have a valid driver’s
license, car insurance, and proof of car registration
How to Power a Satellite

In this article Dr Tim Jackson explains how you power a satellite.

© University of Birmingham

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Before we consider the work undertaken by the SERENE group at the University of Birmingham, we’ll
look at a much larger-scale spacecraft, China’s Tiangong 2 Space Laboratory.

Tiangong 2

Tiangong 2 was built in Beijing Space City and launched on 15th September, 2015 from the Jiuguan
Satellite Launch Centre aboard a Long March 2 rocket [1].

The solar panels were folded up for launch and then deployed once the spacecraft was in orbit. We’ll
see some examples of unfolding electrical devices in space in a later activity. Two wings extend from
either side of the spacecraft [2]. Each wing is comprised of four solar panels made up of gallium-
arsenide solar cells. Each wing has an area of around 30 m 2, so the total area of the solar generating
panels is equivalent to about two thirds of the goal area on a soccer pitch. The panels can be tilted to
present the maximum possible area to the sun. The power generated by a solar panel is directly
proportional to the intensity of sunlight falling on it, so it makes sense to maximise that area by
tilting the panels to be as close as possible to perpendicular to the sun. The panels can generate up
to 6 kW of DC power when fully illuminated. Power is generated at 100 V and then stepped-down to
28 V and 12 V with DC-DC converters to power the various sub-systems and equipment within the
laboratory.

Over the course of one orbit, the average power generated a little less than half of the maximum
value, around 2.5 kW. The spacecraft must spend some part of its orbit in the Earth’s shadow, and
for that time there will be no solar generation. So a considerable proportion of the generated
electricity must be stored in batteries. These batteries are 40 Amp-hour nickel-metal hydride units.

Understanding the numbers

The solar irradiation density outside the Earth’s atmosphere is around 1.36 kW m -2. The 60 m2 of
solar panels aboard Tiangong-2 convert less than 1/10th of that into electrical power. That’s for two
reasons. The first is that the generation of electricity in solar panels is performed by electromagnetic
radiation over only a small range of wavelengths. The second is that the generation processes within
the panels have an efficiency of around 15%. That sounds low but it is limited by the physical
mechanisms at work and the construction and circuity associated with the panels. Much research
time worldwide is spent on how to make more efficient solar cells. The most sophisticated (for
“sophisticated” read “expensive”, “rare”, “lab-based”) solar cells have efficiencies in the range 40-
50%, commercially viable solar cells operate in the range of 10-20 % efficiency.

Some of the solar radiation is in the form of heat (infra-red wavelengths), and so one of the non-
electrical challenges for the designers of spacecraft is how to insulate them from that heat.
Conversely, when the spacecraft is in the Earth’s shadow, the designers have got to keep the heat in!

We can make some estimates about the batteries aboard Tiangong-2. The typical power storage
density of a nickel-metal hydride battery is 50 Wh/Kg. Let’s guess that we want to store 50% of the
generated electricity in the batteries. On average, the panels give us 2.5×24 = 60 kW-hours a day, so
to have a half day’s supply of electricity we need to store 30 kW-hours. We therefore need 600 Kg of
batteries to have just 12 hours safety margin for the electricity supply. The launch weight of
Tiangong-2 can’t have been above 8,500 Kg because it is limited by the launch rocket. Therefore
something like 10 % of the weight of the spacecraft was probably taken up by batteries.
Banxing-2

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Electrical Engineering: Sensing, Powering and Controlling

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Alongside the main Tiangong-2 spacecraft is a micro satellite called the Banxing-2 (BX-2), which was
designed and developed at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology. This is close in size to
the pocket-cube satellites which we want to consider in our next article. The purpose of BX-2 is to
take photographs of Tiangong-2. This microsatellite is a cube with a side length of 40 centimeters. It
is equipped with three gallium arsenide solar panels attached to its sides. These have to power a
control system for the propulsion systems to keep flying close to, and at a suitable angle to, the main
spacecraft, for the communications systems and for the onboard cameras. Like Tiangong-2, BX-2
must have onboard batteries and a power management control system.

Let’s think about what 2.5 kW of generated power actually means. A desk top computer back at
mission control might consume 250 W of power, that’s one tenth of the average power generated in
one orbit. The designers of the power systems on spacecraft have to think very carefully about the
power budget. It really is a question of power – the power figure tells us the rate at which energy is
being supplied. At 100 V supply, the rate at which charge is moving through the circuits – in other
words, the electric current – is 25 A. If we try to draw too much power, or too much current, then
the voltage drops. Stepping the voltage down to lower levels is both safe, and it gives us more
current to do work with, but the power available remains the same (actually, slightly less because no
converter is 100 % efficient). And 2.5 kW is not a lot of power to work with. In step 2.10 (Power
Budgets) we’ll ask you to make a power “budget” for your daily activities and you can get an idea of
just what can be done with 2.5 kW.

How does a solar panel work?

The solar panels themselves need some control circuitry. The “operating characteristic” of a typical
commercial solar cell is shown in the diagram below. The cell acts like a current source – it will
deliver a fixed current under a defined solar irradiance (the xxx W m -2 figures shown) up to a
threshold voltage, above which the current falls. You could use the curves in this plot to develop
graphs of output electrical power against voltage. You will see that there is a particular voltage at
which the output power is a maximum for each of the irradiance curves. This maximum power is
limited by the rate of energy supply from the sun and the efficiency of the solar cell. The voltage at
which the maximum power is delivered is dependent upon the irradiance. (It is, in fact, also
dependent on the temperature of the panel but we’ll ignore this for now).
  
(Click to expand)

The electrical power engineers in a satellite design team could design a circuit which can extract the
maximum power from the solar panels. They would have to “track” the power delivered and have a
control system in their electronics to adjust the operating voltage of the panel to suit the solar
irradiance. They have to have sensors to determine the angle of the panel to the sun’s radiation and
motors in a feedback-controlled system to adjust the angle of the panels to maximise the solar
irradiance. Or, they may decide that the complexity and weight of such a system is too great for the
constraints of their system, and fix some parameters at values which deliver enough power to meet
the power budget of the system. Compromise is an important part of Engineering, so long as the
success of the mission is achieved.

We finish this article then with a reflection. The root of the word “Engineering” lies in ingenuity, in
cunning, in cleverness, in having the skill or talent to devise a means of achieving a desired outcome.
Providing power in space, requires ingenuity.