Anechoic Chamber

The 10 foot x 20 foot anechoic chamber allows for the testing and verification of antenna designs.

Center for Engineering Design and Entrepreneurship (CEDE)

CEDE is a flexible facility for students to develop their technical and professional skills through design based learning. The Center fosters collaboration between engineering and business colleges in partnership with industry to use the Center's facilities to design, construct and test engineering solutions to actual problems. The Center also supports critical software tools, hardware, computer networks, and data/audio/video conferencing technologies for collaboration and design.

• Light wood-shop tools
• Drills, saws, sanders, and various hand tools
• Construction space

• Video Conferencing via PictureTel and ProShare
• ProE/ProM, IDEAS, ABAQUS, ANSYS, Unigraphics, IronCAD, AutoCAD LT

• Video/voice/data conferencing capabilities

• Workbenches, hand tools for light assembly/disassembly
• Electrical measurement and testing equipment
• Data acquisition with LabView

Center for Space Research Programs

"The Center for Space Research Programs is a Penn State mission-oriented science and technology center catalyzing the conceptualization, formulation, and implementation of advanced space missions.
The Center facilitates development,growth, and sustainability of the unique human and physical resources required for space research at Penn State.
The Center enables and coordinates the collaborative use of Penn State space research resources, without regard to artificial college boundaries, in support of missions and their enabling technologies.
The Center's decisions are guided by the University's joint missions of education, research, and outreach."
--CSRP Web site

Clean Room

11-foot by 13-foot, Class 100,000 clean room used for assembling student spacecraft.

Collaboration Tools

• Adobe Connect Professional (Formerly Macromedia Breeze)
Using Adobe Connect, SSPL members can join a live, on-line meeting from any where in the world. A meeting can have as few as two or as many as several hundred attendees.
In a meeting, you can see and hear various types of media, such as a live video broadcast of the Presenter, a Microsoft Power Point presentation, or a video. In real time, Presenters can demonstrate software on the computer or use a whiteboard to draw or annotate images or text.
• Document Server
The SSPL Document Server provides for an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services to connect people, information, processes, and systems across all SSPL Programs.
SSPL uses this server to create a knowledge base from past projects, a configuration and baseline management tool, version control, and a repository for standardized processes and procedures used for design, integration and testing.

Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory

The Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory (CSSL) is an interdisciplinary and intercollege component of Penn State's Department of Electrical Engineering. Founded in 1949 by Arthur H. Waynick as the Ionosphere Research Laboratory (IRL), it became the Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory in 1985 because of the diversity of its research activities.
CSSL educational and research activities center on electromagnetic (EM) phenomena either directly or as tools for probing the structure and dynamics of the atmosphere and ionosphere. For example, we are using a variety of radar, lidar, radiometer, and rocket-borne probing techniques to investigate atmospheric and ionospheric processes and coupling between atmospheric regions. Much of the instrumentation is conceived, designed, and built in-house. CSSL is also concerned with the study of EM phenomena, such as pulse propagation and scattering in a variety of media, and with the design of antennas. We utilize an array of computer codes to study EM processes and to visualize these and other processes.

Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory (Machine Shop)

Learning Factory Floor

Jon Cumblad (front) with Alain Amazon and Jill Leggett at the Learning Factory constructing the ESPRIT payload.

Components built by Penn State Students for LionSat at the Learning Factory

"The Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory is a hands-on learning facility of the College of Engineering. Occupying 3500 sq.ft on the west campus, it provides state of the art manufacturing and prototyping facilities. Its mission is to help students develop common sense, and gain practical experience in the art of engineering. It is used by over 2000 students annually."

Almost all of the student-built structure and mechanisms for past projects were machined at the Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory. It continues to be a valuable asset to future projects. Its capabilities are as follows:

• Three-axis Bridgeport CNC Machining Center (Torq-Cut V22)
• Two Bridgeport Series II milling machines with digital readout (DRO)
• Bridgeport EZ-Trak CNC/Manual vertical mill
• Two 14" South Bend 1440 lathes with DRO
• 10" South Bend lathe
• Wilton drill press
• Drills, saws, sanders, and various hand tools
• Construction space

• TIG
• MIG
• arc
• gas
• plasma cutter

• Helisys LOM 1015
• Statasys FDM 2000
• Zcorp Z402

• Hardness tester
• Workbenches
• Hydraulic press
• Arbor press
• Hand tools
• Hand held power tools

PCB Fabrication

While most flight Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are contracted to a PCB manufacturer, multiple PCB prototyping systems allow for quick prototypes before going to final production. SSPL uses the Quick Circuit 5000 Prototyping System with the following specifications:

• One or two layer boards
• 5-mil (1 mil = 1/1000 inches) minimum trace width
• 0.25-mil resolution
• 8,000 - 24,000 rpm spindle
• 10 inch × 13 inch working area

Satellite Ground Station

The Lab is developing its own satellite tracking ground station. The ground station is being built from the ground up entirely by students. Currently, the lab possesses one tracking parabolic antenna and is in the final stages of acquiring three radome SeaTel antenna. With these resources available, Penn State can network with other universities within the United State as well as Europe, in becoming a very powerful node in network of ground stations. The ground station network provides an opportunity for each node to track and receive data from university and professional satellites.

Thermal Cycling

Temperature Chamber

• 7-ft3 chamber area (dimensions 24" W × 21" H × 24" D)
• Can test components between -73 °C to +175 °C
• Programmable profile
• Labview interface for customized testing profile

Vacuum Chamber System

Vacuum Chamber shown with testing rack (left) and Temperature Recirculator (right)

Temperature Recirculator

Inside the vacuum chamber, with the LEPS in the back

Low Energy Plasma Source (LEPS)

• 60-cm diameter ×100-cm
• Capable of pressures as low as 10-7 torr
• BOC Edwards E100L Dry Pump (no oil; safe for optics and other sensitive instruments)
• CTI Cryogenics Cryo-Torr High Vacuum Pump

• -90 °C to +150 °C
• Constant-flow, clean, ultra-low temp coolant

• LEPS 250 Plasma Source
• Capable of Xe, Ar, Kr, Ne, or N2
• 2–20 eV ion energy, <1 eV e- energy