NASA Goddard

Success Story:
NASA Goddard
EDM I Milling I Laser Texturing I Tooling & Automation I Customer Service

Nobody flies without manufacturing – how the Advanced
Manufacturing Branch at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
is helping to push the limits of space technology.
When it comes to advancing space exploration, the sky’s the
limit at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), a place
where studying black holes, conducting gravitational mapping
of the moon, exploring Mars and Jupiter, and visiting the
International Space Station propel science beyond what was
ever thought possible.
Located in Greenbelt, Md., the GSFC designs, builds, and operates
satellites and scientific equipment such as the Hubble
Space Telescope, GOES weather satellites, LandSat earth imaging
systems, the SOHO solar observatory, and many others.
A big part of the GSFC’s capabilities comes from its on-site
Advanced Manufacturing Branch, which provides broad machining,
fabrication, and assembly services via punches and
press brakes, gauging systems, turning machines, and GF
AgieCharmilles multi-axis high-speed machining centers. And
with in-house metal finishing, composite layup and curing,
rapid prototyping, precision assembly, and more, there’s not
much the branch can’t handle.
Matt Showalter, associate branch head for the Advanced
Manufacturing Branch, code 547, often thinks of the facility as
Goddard’s “temple of science and engineering.” He said, “It’s
a place for ideas to become reality. The branch’s motto, based
on an old advertising logo, is “we bring concepts to flight.”
For nearly a decade, Showalter has been part of a team devoted
to continuous improvement of Goddard’s manufacturing
abilities. Showalter explained, “Our purpose here is to ensure
that we have the capability and capacity to do anything that
comes through the door. Prior to our initiative to modernize
the shop, we were totally dependent on older systems and
there were some things we just couldn’t do. You can limit
yourself from a science and engineering perspective if you
don’t put new technologies into your manufacturing.”
Before the modernization initiative was begun at Goddard nine
years ago, one missing piece of the manufacturing puzzle was
multi-axis high-speed machining. To that end, the Advanced
Manufacturing Branch team has invested in Mikron multiaxis
machining centers from GF AgieCharmilles. Starting with
one Mikron HSM 600U machine seven years ago, the facility
now has an impressive 4-machine high-speed machining cell
containing the original HSM 600U together with a Mikron HSM
400U, Mikron HPM 800U and Mikron HPM 1350U.
Showalter explained that bringing in new machine tool technology
is a collaborative effort, controlled by strict federal
procurement regulations, where potential vendors are invited
in to show off their wares. Beginning with discussions about
future needs of the engineers and scientists, and technical
assessments by technicians from the shop floor, everyone
contributes in developing the statement of work that defines
the specifications for the necessary machine technology to
meet the current and future requirements of the organization.

It’s not just a piece of equipment, but a complete package of
support, tooling, and training. “When it hits the floor, we want
it running and not waiting three years to tool it up.”
Today’s satellites and associated instruments are getting
lighter and smaller, with modern satellites coming in at onefourth
the size of their older cousins. “We have to minimize
weight, because it’s expensive to launch. As part features
get smaller, our tolerances get smaller as well. And the high
speed machining centers are critical to this work.”
With the capability of Mikron High Speed Machining (HSM) and
High Performance Machining (HPM), the Advanced Manufacturing
Branch is able to handle a variety of work. “We machine
anything from aluminum, titanium, Inconel, Invar, stainless
steel, and high-nickel alloys…you name it.” From these
materials, the Advanced Manufacturing Branch employees
use the Mikrons to machine an expansive range of workpiece
types, from components measuring .030” across with features
as small as a human hair, all the way up to workpieces that
would fill a one-meter cube.
Designed to accommodate workpieces up to 9.05” x 13.77”, the
Mikron HSM 400U portal design provides simultaneous 5-axis
machining in a compact footprint. Because of its reliability,
traceability and accuracy, the Mikron HSM 400U is an ideal
solution for the Advanced Manufacturing Branch’s prototype
work and mold construction. Additionally, the machine
provides excellent surface finishes and precision part details,
while significantly reducing machining time for semi-finishing
and finishing operations.
The Mikron HSM 600U and Mikron HPM 800U are also based
on a portal-type gantry design. These 5-axis machines are
built for high-performance machining applications, and for 100
percent full 5-axis simultaneous machining operations, the
two machines feature direct drives in their circular and swiveling
axes, which securely clamp in place for precision part
positioning. Thanks to their unique designs and modularity,
these machines provide the Advanced Manufacturing Branch
with high-accuracy machining for both its single part production
and rational series production.
GF AgieCharmilles’ Mikron HPM 1350U, on the other hand,
is based on a cross-bed-type design. The machine’s frameshaped
traveling column moves the spindle in the Y- and
Z-axis travels, while the X-axis is in the table. This special
design allows the Advanced Manufacturing Branch to eliminate
problems associated with any superimposed machine
movements.
But there’s more to the story than high-performance and
high-speed machining. The multi-axis capabilities of the Mikrons
can allow Goddard engineers to design better parts. Said
Showalter, “With the 5-axis system, we have the ability to take
a multiple-component bracket or assembly configuration and
make it into one part. We can go from plane normal to a reverse
angle plane or compound angle plane and do everything
in one workpiece and a single operation. So instead of stacked
tolerances (as in a multiple-part assembly), our accuracies
are controlled by a single reference coordinate system.”
One of the people using the Advanced Manufacturing Branch’s
services is Adam Matuszeski, electromechanical engineer at
NASA. Matuszeski was part of the group responsible for building
the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, which was
placed into orbit around the Earth’s moon in 2009. Designed to
map out potential landing sites and gather information about
the moon’s surface and geography, the LRO mission, slated to
last only 14 months, is still successfully streaming data back
to Goddard.
Circling the moon at an altitude of 30 miles, the LRO satellite
carries seven high-tech devices designed to image the moon’s
surface, measure radiation levels, and look for areas of frost
and water ice, especially near the poles. Critical to the LRO’s
success is always knowing the precise location of the spacecraft.
To accomplish this feat, scientists mounted a small telescope
on the orbiter’s antenna dish. Said Matuszeski, “The telescope
looked through a hole in the dish, and was connected via fiber
optics from the back of the telescope to a detector on the
laser altimeter. Because it was going to the moon and taking
very precise instrument data, it needed to have a way of knowing
exactly where in space it was.”
The solution was a tiny telescope hidden behind the antenna
dish and designed to give a laser-referenced measurement
from earth. It picks up a pulse of green laser light shot from a
station at Greenbelt and measures the amount of time it takes
to get from the earth to the LRO, indicating how far away the
spacecraft is from earth.”
“For this project, we had to run seven 0.25 mm diameter fiber
optics across the spacecraft. The trickiest part of that was
machining the tip of the connector, which is called the ferrule.
It’s a 2.5 mm cylinder that’s hollow on one side, like a long
thin cup about 17 mm long. We milled a flower-shaped pattern
in the end of the cup using a .006”end mill on our Mikron
machine, which allowed us to locate those seven fibers, six on
the outside and one in the middle, then affix them there with
an epoxy and polish them flat,” explained Matuszeski. With the
LRO, NASA has already collected the same amount of data as
all previous planetary missions combined.
Another of the seven devices riding aboard the LRO is LOLA,
short for the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter. LOLA is a complex
little device, but in simple terms, her job is to generate a
high-resolution 3D map of the moon, which will help scientists
find the best place to land future spacecraft, or possible
sites for solar power stations.
“LOLA uses what’s called a LIDAR. It’s like a radar, but it uses
a laser for detection and ranging to measure distance,” said
Matuszeski. “However, the art of creating a laser that can fly
in space is kind of a black art, and it’s one of the things that
our center at Goddard prides itself on. We’ve probably done
five or six of them successfully over the last 15 to 20 years, and
all of them were challenging.”
Matuszeski went on to say that it’s quite difficult to build a
laser that will last years in space, not only because of the

harsh environment, but also because it’s impossible to make
any physical adjustments after the device has left the launching
pad.
To accomplish its difficult mission, LOLA depends on a tiny
array of five fiber-optic lenses held in a precision-machined
ferrule. LOLA fires a laser beam through this optical array,
where it is broken into five separate beams, each of which
bounces off the moon’s surface before returning to LOLA and
being transmitted back to earth, thus allowing scientists to
measure the surface variations and piece together a 3D map
of the lunar surface.
Matuszeski explained that the five fiber optics — each just 0.1
mm in diameter — were precisely placed in a cross pattern
on the back of the telescope. “It kind of looked like the cross
section of a clover leaf or club from a deck of cards. We were
trying to machine that shape into a stainless steel ferule 2.5
mm across.”
He further explained, “All five of them had to be located within
respect to the center of the pattern within 10 to 15 microns.
The holes had to be slightly more precise than that, because
otherwise the fibers could move around and get bonded in
the wrong place. We used a 0.003” end mill running at up to
36,000 rpm, and looked at the tool after every cut to check for
wear. We’d then adjust the next cut based on that. I don’t think
we could’ve done these particular parts on any other machines
than a highly accurate 5 axis machining center.”
It’s tough machining work, to be sure. So why not outsource
it? With today’s budget-cutting economy, wouldn’t it be easier
and cheaper just to send this work out to a job shop, someone
who specializes in this sort of work? Said Showalter, “In fact,
the majority of the work that we do goes outside to our vendors.
But what I see as different from a job shop is that we’re
here to produce a part, sure, but we’re also here to figure out
the process. That’s why we keep a lot of the tougher work inhouse.
When you’re doing internal research and development
or solving critical tolerance issues for a flight project, it gives
you in-house control and feedback in real time for the development
of that process.”
That’s because, aside from high-precision and high-performance
machinery and the knowledge to operate it, building
a spacecraft also requires a high level of collaboration. Said
Showalter, “We look at this as a triangle — science, engineering
and manufacturing. You need science for the ideas of what
you’re going to do. Engineering determines the designs for the
hardware. But, nobody flies without manufacturing. There are
three legs to the stool.”
According to Showalter, “At times we’ll go back to the machine
and cutting tool vendors to get their input. We don’t
pretend to be the expert on everything. That’s why we collaborate
with the organizations that sell us the equipment. We
don’t want to go in and just buy a machine. The most value
to us, the government, is the full package: is it the correct
manufacturing technology, what does the machine cost, what
does the training cost, are application engineers available
when needed?”
These factors are important because the facility’s schedules
are critical. When dealing with celestial events, there may
be times there’s only one chance for success. “For instance,
if we’re involved in a project specific to a comet fly by, for
example, such an event may not have occurred in hundreds of
years. So when we are involved with such once-in-a-lifetime
events, meeting specified launch dates is mandatory. To do
so, we’ll use all the resources available to us, including our
machine tool suppliers.”
“After the new machines were installed, GF AgieCharmilles
came out and had both machines up and running in less than
10 days. Training began. We were bringing new folks into the
cell. Because of that, we made calls and had applications support
quickly queued up and on the phone whenever we needed
it.”
Showalter said that level of support continues today, “We had
a job that was kind of rushed and we needed support, and they
sent an applications engineer out who was on site within 48
hours. Considering we had three new guys coming into that
group, that’s pretty good. Pretty much, that’s the standard.
Anything we put on the floor, the expectation is that’s what we
want, and AgieCharmilles is quite aware of what we need, so
they deliver it and meet our expectations every time.”
“Overall, GF AgieCharmilles is a very responsive technical
collaborator and has played a vital role for us,” commented
Showalter. “We are looking to make Goddard a world-class,
premiere manufacturing facility. That said, as the technology
grows, we intend to grow with it. The days of buying a piece of
equipment and keeping it for 25 years until its dead are gone.”
With the rapid change of technology, it’s important that the
facility can update the equipment at the end of its useful life.
Bill Cowan, sales associate with Tuckahoe, the GF
AgieCharmilles Sales Agent that supplied the Mikron equipment
to Goddard, supports that statement. “Something that’s
different here than in a lot of other government facilities is
this: machines at Goddard are being utilized more consistently
than what I see in a lot of private shops. Goddard works as
teams that are all on campus, so production times are shorter
and operations more efficient with less waste.”
For over 50 years, the U.S. space program has been making
important scientific discoveries, providing the raw stuff of high
technology. It’s not just about putting people in space. Aside
from the obvious benefits of space technology — global positioning
systems, weather monitoring, and telecommunication
satellites, to name a few — there are also the everyday items
often taken for granted: athletic shoes, water purification,
smoke detectors, invisible braces, instant-read thermometers,
even pizza delivery boxes and golf-ball dimples. The list
goes on, and will continue to grow as NASA and the talented
people at the Goddard Space Flight Center continue to push
the limits.

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