I spent much of the day reexamining my link budget for the communications subsystem and checking my work with my counterpart on the other team. After that, I did a lot of work creating very detailed power and mass budgets for each subsystem and for the satellite in general. When all of the subsystems has basically finished their own work, we began making the pages of our flip chart presentation. During that process, we encountered a small crisis with the structural subsystem, where a calculation error had greatly underestimated the mass of the structure. Given the actual mass, we had to resize the structure and cut back on mass elsewhere. This was just like the real trades made by the engineers in the IMDC. In the end, we completed most of our pages, and agreed to finalize our presentation in the hours before we presented on Friday.
Friday, the last day of the CFIP program. The previous two days I had been waking up a little later, catching the 8:15 bus, and getting to Goddard just before 9:00, but today I got up plenty early and was hard at work in Building 26 by 8:00. We finished the last of our flip chart pages just in time. A panel of administrators and engineers had assembled to hear the results of our work. The other team presented their project first and did an excellent job. All of their members were excellent public speakers, and they went into great detail about the technical aspects of their mission. Though their presentation lasted a long time, it was quite informative and clearly indicated the amount of hard work that they had done. After a short break and a few changes in the panel of listeners, it was our turn. Now, unfortunately, I am not a great public speaker, and I spoke far too quickly (as I often do). However, some other members of my team were more gifted in that area, and our flip chart pages were clear and colorful. After our presentation, we received comments from the panel. One of the big ones concerned our style of presentation. In some cases we had gone through all of our calculations step-by-step, while in the real world, it is assumed that the calculations made by engineers are correct and don't need to be checked over during a presentation. Still, the panel agreed that both groups had done an excellent job.
After lunch, we gave individual presentations on our experience throughout the program and heard some closing remarks by a few engineers. And then there were awards! After the presentations, the teams were instructed to vote for the best speaker on the opposite team and for the “team leader” on their own. On my team, two fellow physics majors form the University of Maryland were awarded the best speaker award, and I was given the team leader award. I was quite honored.
Finally, we spent a good few hours filling out evaluations and surveys regarding the program, as this was only its second year and the first year that it had been conducted like this. After taking pictures and trading contact information, we left Goddard, may of us hoping to return in the near future.
Hello, my name is Curran Muhlberger and I am a 19 year old freshman at the University of Maryland, College Park. For the past 13 years I have attended public school in Howard County Maryland, and I am now at college seeking degrees in physics, mathematics, and astronomy. Among my activities at the university is the Leaders for Tomorrow program, which is a large contributor to the research posted here on princegeorges.org. In fact, part of my summer project for the program was to design the website for princegeorges.org and all of the behind-the-scenes technology that makes it possible. I hope you have found this site informative and that it has given you a taste of some of the amazing things that are happening right here in Prince Georges County.
