MT Magazine September/October 2024

FEATURE STORY

THE SPACE ISSUE

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supply base is critical to Orbion. “We tried to get a Midwest supply base,” Panella says, noting that suppliers working in the medical industry – those familiar with small, precision parts production – are among those who have been contracted by Orbion. Although there are suppliers in Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota, Orbion is also using manufacturers on the coasts who can provide them with the specific components they need. Shipping is not an issue. “The parts can fit in a small box and be sent via the mail, UPS, or FedEx. Our receiving room measures about 10 feet by 10 feet.” The power processing unit and the electrical harness assembly are each produced and tested by contract manufacturers. It is worth noting that components that go into a thruster system are not things that are off the shelf but designed by Orbion engineers. Because quality is so important, the suppliers do 100% inspection of the parts they produce and provide Orbion with the data on critical characteristics. When the parts arrive at Orbion, they do a random check of a few parts to verify they meet the specs. Should there be any issues, then they work to determine whether this is a measurement or a manufacturing problem in order to resolve it. One of the things that Panella emphasizes to the people at Orbion is that there is nothing wrong with finding problems. “We want to find problems early and address them.” Which goes back to the point of the seemingly low output of the plant.

Panella says that they spend about four times the amount of time testing things as they do making them. They can produce a xenon flow controller in about four hours – and then spend five days testing it. “Think of the valves. If we have a valve that sticks open when the satellite is in orbit, then the fuel is going to leak out, and the satellite is dead.” So there is vibration testing, thermal cycle testing, leak testing, and more – both at the component level and the module level. And because these are systems that are working in space, they have four vacuum chambers where they perform testing not only in a vacuum but also at thermal cycles. After all, there are serious temperature swings in space depending on whether something is in the Sun (e.g., 248 degrees Fahrenheit) or in the shade (minus 148 degrees Fahrenheit). In 1891 a powerhouse was opened in Houghton on what is known as the Portage Canal. The dynamos and other equipment that filled the building provided electricity for Houghton and Hancock, the small city on the other side of the waterway. The building was built from Jacobsville Sandstone, a reddish stone that is indigenous to the area – as is copper, which helped in the electrification of the country and continues to play a major role in the electrification of vehicles, and which gave rise to the Not Exactly Hoth From ‘Star Wars’ Which brings us back to Earth, to Houghton.

An Orbion thruster. It is compact – about the size of a coffee cup – but highly efficient. (Image courtesy of Orbion.)