This Is How Spaceships Are Born...
Galactic Brainstorm JPL's A-Team—a small group of creative
thinkers with diverse backgrounds that's composed of different people
every time—gets together in a place known as Left Field. Left Field is a
flexible space that kind of looks like a pop-up pre-school. It's packed
full of toys, and it's only been around for the last year. Paired with a
Principal Investigator (a.k.a. the main scientist), the A-Team
brainstorms ideas to address the priorities of the Decadal Survey. The
Decadal Survey, which takes place whenever NASA wants to reassess its
research priorities for the next 10 years, compiles a list of dream
projects from some of the world's best science minds. The most recent
one came out in March of last year, and called for, among other things, a
new Mars Sky Crane and a Saturn Ring Observer. The A-Team comes
up with some wild ideas, and the best ones are sent to Team X—a larger
group that has an expert from each critical subset of a mission (eg:
power, navigation, structures, propulsion, thermal, telecomm, etc). They
look at things more critically, say what is/isn't practical/possible. A
Team X session is quick and dirty: nine intense hours with roughly 30
people crammed into a room. Each member takes care of his or her
specialty independently, and moves the dynamic design forward as a
whole. There's a lot of back and forth, and it sort of resembles trading
on the floor of the NYSE. The team also sharpens the pencil quite a bit
with regards to cost. Things get bounced back and forth between Left
Field and Team X for a while until they come up with an idea that works.Approval Matrix When a "funding opportunity" arises, the JPL
brass figures out which Team X "graduates" fit within the scope and
cost cap, and an official proposal is written. See, this money isn't
just handed out; JPL has to compete with other NASA facilities and
private companies for the contract. If NASA JPL wins the contract then
they start the official preliminary design phase. It's important to note
that there are many flavors of "winning". They might have the PI make
the thing and then do all the science, or they might just manage it, or
simply make an instrument for someone else. Every proposal is different. If
JPL wins a contract to build something, it's time for its Mechanical
Design Center to get involved. These engineers figure out how to make
the concept a reality—what metals will work, what shape a joint should
be, etc. Team X comes up with a sort of refined sketch; the MDC makes
the CAD drawing where every bolt and beam is precisely represented. It
would go something like this: Scientists: "Get these 10
science instruments to Mars and make sure they're still working when
they get there. Also we want to test in more locations than just were we
land"
Engineers: "OK, then it should probably have wheels…" But
then they need to make decisions like should it have 4 wheels or 8? How
big should the wheels be? What material should they be made out of? And
so on. They're adding a ton of details and modifying the back-of-the-envelope work done in Team X. This is known as the Preliminary Design Phase. Once
the engineers feel pretty good about their design there's a Final
Design Review where they have to present it to a roomful of
"graybeards." Translation: old dudes who are ridiculously smart and have
been doing this for a long time. Since NASA is working on problems that
have never been tackled before, there are no real experts—but they're
the most qualified people on the planet. You would probably be
intimidated.Building the DreamIf it passes the Final design review, it's off to the machine shops to
make the prototype parts. Then the engineers put the product together
and test the crap out of it to make sure it performs as everyone
intended. If the prototype works and looks good, then the place best
suited to make the part will be selected—either JPL's on-site machine
shop or a local one. Nothing is mass produced; everything is a one off
(maybe a two off). Finally, the
thing is launched and JPL tracks, monitors, and manages it from the
Space Flight Operation Facility: the "Center of the Universe".