RAPID CITY, S.D. (May 2, 2017) – Mines
electrical engineering senior Trey Wammen of Reva, S.D., has been interning
this semester at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. He
has been designing and modeling electrical systems for the Life Science
Glovebox going on board the International Space Station in 2018.
The Life Science Glovebox is a sealed work
area inside the International Space Station that provides bioisolation and
waste control so crew members can perform experimental procedures in cell,
insect, aquatic, plant and animal developmental biology. Wammen helped design the
electrical cable harnesses inside the Life Science Glovebox, where rodent
research and cell biology studies will be conducted in micro-gravity. His work
aims to find solutions to challenges posed by factors that go into cable
harness design, such as signal types, electromagnetic influence, environmental
situations and faraday shielding, which blocks electromagnetic fields.
In addition, Wammen worked on startup electrical integration for
the Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout, which is designed as a secondary payload
on NASA's new Space Launch System. NEA Scout is a robotic reconnaissance
mission that will be deployed to collect imagery data from a passing asteroid.
Working with engineers from NASA’s Marshall
Space Flight Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Wammen helped
create a 3D-printed model of NEA Scout to better understand the cable
harnessing layout.
Following the completion of his NASA
internship, Wammen has another internship lined up this summer at Black Hills
Corporation’s Wyodak Mine in Gillette, Wyo.
Wammen is a graduate of Harding County High
School.