Cale Van Der Westhuizen Email & Phone Number

Cape Town, Wc, Za

City Of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa

South Africa

- Worked on the design, development and testing of a prototype model for a fluid loop attitude control system. This was an entirely new concept and relevant tests needed to be done to confirm whether the project was feasible before additional research funding could be acquired. The project involved the following aspects: PCB design and modification work inside clean-room facilities, software development in TrueStudio to generate a sequence of control signals that could be used to test the… Show more - Worked on the design, development and testing of a prototype model for a fluid loop attitude control system. This was an entirely new concept and relevant tests needed to be done to confirm whether the project was feasible before additional research funding could be acquired. The project involved the following aspects: PCB design and modification work inside clean-room facilities, software development in TrueStudio to generate a sequence of control signals that could be used to test the system, test station setup design and measurement, results analysis in excel for data calibration and concept verification, full system assembly to demonstrate multi-axis control on an air bearing, assistance with the final documentation proposal. Fluid loop control was confirmed to be a feasible solution for attitude control which inherently has many additional advantages that could make this approach far superior to existing control systems.- Debugging of sun-sensor for CubeSats. The sun-sensor was experiencing unacceptable noise levels of which the source could not be determined. This project involved numerous tests inside a dark-room facility of which both the test setup and the sun-sensor were tested for faults. Show less

South Africa

- Undertook an internship at the Space Advisory Company for 6 months during university holidays and after classes. Had the privilege of being mentored by experts in different fields of satellite engineering including power systems, satellite radar, communication systems, optical systems, assembly test and integration, software and analogue electronics.- Tasked with constructing a database of all major components of a satellite that would summarize all the performance specifications of… Show more - Undertook an internship at the Space Advisory Company for 6 months during university holidays and after classes. Had the privilege of being mentored by experts in different fields of satellite engineering including power systems, satellite radar, communication systems, optical systems, assembly test and integration, software and analogue electronics.- Tasked with constructing a database of all major components of a satellite that would summarize all the performance specifications of each component. This would enable the system engineers to make faster and better decisions as to what parts would best ensure that the satellite mission requirements are met. After reading and summarizing hundreds of datasheets, I became familiar with the significance and importance of each part in the entire satellite structure.-Basic orbital mechanics, flight planning and systems engineering.-Intricate soldering experience in clean-room facilities. Work done on a prototype power supply unit of a maximum power point tracker. Show less