ORBITEC offers engineering services to provide innovative solutions to your particular problem. ORBITEC’s facility encompasses specially designed laboratories for electrical, mechanical and combustion design and testing as well as clean rooms and environmental control chambers.  ORBITEC can provide expertise in:
 

Mechanical Design

ORBITEC’s mechanical design team can solve your most demanding design problems using the most advanced aerospace materials and cutting edge analytical tools.  Our highly trained staff and design software, fully integrated through manufacturing, allow rapid iteration to achieve an optimal solution with faster turnaround time.

Electrical Design
 

From initial concept through final manufacturing, ORBITEC's electrical design staff is experienced in all aspects of electronic system development. Analog and digital design capabilities include sensor interface and signal conditioning, precision instrumentation, data acquisition, digital signal processing, closed loop system control and high efficiency driver design. In-house schematic capture and printed circuit board layout capabilities enhance prototype testing and provide a seamless progression to the production design. Component and subsystem test facilities ensure design integrity. Knowledge of Shuttle and Space Station electrical design requirements promotes the development of flight ready designs. The workmanship of NASA certified technicians guarantees all systems will be manufactured to the highest quality standards.

Software Development
 

ORBITEC’s software capabilities include embedded control, graphical user interfaces, virtual reality, data acquisition and analysis, digital signal processing, database development, and a multitude of communication protocols.  Software has been developed for a range of target applications, from 8 bit microcontrollers to networked workstations.

Digital and Embedded Systems Development

   

Digital system development includes multiple microcontrollers communicating in single master formation on a 485 bus, ranging to multi-master configurations utilizing a CAN bus with over 20 nodes.  Complex digital systems have been designed around the PC/104 architecture to take advantage of its small size and high performance.

Analysis
 

ORBITEC has in-depth analysis expertise and software to support research, design, and data analysis efforts, including: computational fluid dynamics, finite element structural analysis, thermal systems, chemical equilibrium analysis, theoretical rocket performance, statistical design and analysis of experiments, advanced engineering equation solvers, and flight trajectory analysis.

   
Combustion and Propulsion
 

ORBITEC has broad expertise in many areas of propulsion and combustion, including: liquid bi-propellant rocket engines, both storable and cryogenic hybrid rocket engines, solid-propellant rocket motors, air-breathing engines, advanced space transportation systems, and advanced diagnostic instrumentation.  ORBITEC's rocket test facilities include liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, liquid hydrocarbon, various gaseous propellant systems, a large air blow-down tank, instrumented thrust stands that can operate from several pounds to several thousand pounds of thrust, and customized control and data acquisition systems.  Many numerical codes and analytic tools are also available for research, design, and data analysis efforts.

Prototype Building and Testing

ORBITEC maintains a pool of electrical and mechanical technicians who provide support for prototyping activities. ORBITEC also has facilities for manufacturing prototype circuit boards, circuit board assembly, and circuit test and check out. In addition ORBITEC's prototyping machine shop accelerates moving from the concept and design phase to a finished prototype.

 
 Safety & Verification Package Preparation for Flight Hardware
 

The Plant Research Unit and Biomass Production System programs have given ORBITEC much experience in safety and verification. Safety aspects include safety program planning, hazard analysis, and the NASA payload safety process. ORBITEC safety personnel have developed close working relationships with the NASA Payload Safety Review Panel (PSRP), Ground Safety Review Panel (GSRP), and the NASA ARC System Safety and Mission Assurance (SS&MA) department. Verification processes include testing, analyses, demonstrations and inspection. The verification activities confirm that the hardware meets all engineering, safety, human factors, function and interface requirements and document any exceptions to the requirements.

Quality Assurance
 

ORBITEC’s Quality Management System is third party registered to the ISO 9001:2000 standard. Click here to view our ISO certificate.
 

Reliability Assessment
 

ORBITEC's reliability department employs many reliability analysis techniques. Technical expertise in the areas of reliability program planning, requirements allocation, reliability prediction, and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) was used extensively on the Plant Research Unit program.

Configuration Management  

Configuration Management tracks the release of engineering design documentation, all changes to the documentation baseline and change incorporation into the physical hardware. ORBITEC uses a custom database to coordinate all configuration management activities through a single portal. The database includes an extensive reporting feature. Configuration Management also coordinates the review of all internal and customer change notices.  

Fabrication of Flight Hardware
 

ORBITEC maintains the facilities and processes for the acquisition, fabrication, and tracking of materials used to process spaceflight hardware. These facilities include two Class 10,000 Clean Rooms and a Bonded Storeroom. A material tracking system is in place to provide traceability for all flight hardware and components. ORBITEC maintains a pool of technicians formally certified to NASA critical processes, including: NASA-STD-8739.1, Staking and Conformal Coating; NASA-STD-8739.3, Hand Solder; and NASA-STD-8739.4, Crimping, Interconnecting Cables, Harnesses and Wiring.

Government Contracting and Accounting  

ORBITEC currently uses Costpoint™ by Deltek Systems for all material purchasing and management, job costing, accounting, and human resource management needs. This system has integrated all administration functions into one software package capable of fulfilling both government and commercial requirements.

 High-Temperature Material Processing 

ORBITEC has a high-temperature materials laboratory available to perform a wide variety of research activities. This laboratory is equipped with an electric-resistance vacuum furnace (processing temperatures up to 2000 C), a 470-watt CO₂ laser and a 120-watt CO₂ laser, sealed processing chambers, and radiant infrared heaters. A two-color pyrometer is used for non-contact temperature measurements (up to 3000 C). A residual gas analyzer (RGA) with an integrated vacuum pumping station allows gas compositions to be accurately analyzed. A gas chromatograph (GC) is also available for high-accuracy analysis of gas compositions for many inert gasses, hydrocarbon gases, and sulfur compounds.