I have been studying at Maui Community College for the past two years. This past summer I had the opportunity to participate in an internship program with the Center For Adaptive Optics where I worked at an observatory documenting installations and upgrades on the telescopes. During my internship I was able gain valuable in-site on future carrier opportunities by talking with the many engineers and technicians about past schooling and carriers. This greatly influenced my decision to studying mechanical engineering. Currently, I am planing on moving to San Luis Obispo California to study mechanical engineering at California Polytechnic Institute.
Home Island: Maui
High School:
Institution when accepted: Maui Community College
Akamai Project: Documentation of the Installation of State-of-the-Art Cameras and Upgrades to the Ground-based Electro-Optics Deep Space Surveillance System (GEODSS) Telescopes
Project Site: Northrop Grumman
Mentor: Albert Esquibell, Site Manager and Harold Wergers, Maintenance Supervisor
Project Abstract:
The Deep-space Surveillance Technology Advancement & Replacement for Ebsicons Program (Deep STARE) was designed to replace or upgrade telescope cameras, camera electronics, and telescope mount control hardware and software at the GEODSS sites on Maui, Socorro, and Diego Garcia. The cameras that replaced the outdated Ebsicon analog video cameras were new state-of-the-art and highly sensitive Digital Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) arrays. The mount control hardware, software, and camera electronics needed to be replaced to support the new CCD cameras. The installations and upgrades that took place on the telescopes as part of the Deep STARE project at the Maui GEODSS site, were fully documented, on video. Problems that occurred during the installation were also filmed, including the procedures used to fix them. This digital footage transferred the footage to a computer and edited.
The final DVD that was produced will be used as a reference for employee training and system trouble shooting in the future.
For more information on the Deep STARE project visit:
http://www.mitre.org/work/tech_papers/tech_papers_03/faccenda_deepstare/faccenda_deepstare.pdf
For more information on Northrop Grumman’s GEODDS program visit:
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/track/geodss.htm