Name: Mac Goggin

 

Birthplace: Columbus, Indiana

 

AAE Major/Minor Concentration: Dynamics & Controls/Design

 

Student Classification: Senior

 

Name and location of company/organization where you are an intern: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama

 

What are your job duties? I am working Guidance, Navigation & Control (GN&C) for a 12U iodine propulsion demonstration mission called iSAT. iSAT was recently manifested as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 NRO launch to a different orbit than was initially planned. I have been updating the simulation to reflect these changes as well as developing a check-out phase and corresponding mathematical model to determine the satellite's mass properties once in orbit.

 

Why did you want to do this internship? For quite some time now, I have wanted to work on GN&C for a small satellite. I love the atmosphere of a smaller team, and the relative freedom to be creative that comes from working on a cheaper mission. Working on a mission like iSAT is exactly what I wanted to do.

 

What do you hope to gain from the experience? I am learning an incredible amount about what goes into the control system and actual hardware of a cubesat, as well as the details required during mission planning and execution. I hope to leave NASA far more comfortable with both the technical, and mission design aspects of putting a satellite in space.

 

Have you done other co-ops/internships as an AAE student? I have spent the last two summers interning at Cummins Inc., performing systems analysis on test vehicles. While there, I was given the opportunity to go on a test trip with technicians and engineers to subject tucks to extreme and punishing environments. While on this trip, I witnessed controls engineers instantaneously implement changes to the engines and make them more reliable. I have wanted to work in controls ever since.

 

What are your ultimate career goals? Ultimately, I want to help open up the solar system to humanity. Specifically I would love to work on the on-orbit testing and validation of space systems, because only when spacecraft are as reliable and dependable as today's diesel engines will humans truly be able to explore the final frontier.