Tim Frey Email & Phone Number

Long Beach, Ca, Us

Long Beach, Ca, Us

Long Beach, Ca, Us

Hawthorne, California, Us

Hawthorne, California, Us

Hawthorne, California, Us

Flight reliability intern within the Chief Engineering group. Role consisted of ensuring the safe launch of all rockets. Main project involved working with engineers from various groups to modify launch countdown procedures by developing new alarm philosophy and removing outdated procedures. Developed a logical philosophy about what types of alarms should exist and how they should interact with human operators in mission control. Used python scripts to analyze current files and identify potential improvements to be made. Also aided in anomaly investigations pertaining to hydraulic valves and composite structures. Investigation involved working with responsible engineers to identify potential causes, impacts, and mitigations. Investigate points of zero-fault tolerance for propulsion valves and actuators. Create business process and user interface for new risk management application to be used by company for recording and mitigating potential flight risks.

Rochester, Ny, Us

Assisted various professors in teaching classes, including Robotics Lab, System Dynamics, and the CAD portion Engineering design tools. Robotics labs involved introducing students to basic locomotion and sensing. System Dynamics position involved working with students to develop understanding of general dynamic response for various systems. CAD lab position involved introducing students to designing using 3D modeling software and explaining the basics of creating a solid part, an assembly of parts, and a drawing package.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Us

Intern and then part-time thermal engineer for Peregrine Lunar Lander. Thermal Control Subsystem lead. Responsible for developing subsystem in preparation for preliminary design review (PDR). Defined subsystem engineering requirements and entrance/success criteria for PDR. Communicated with other subsystem leads to obtain desired component operating conditions. Performed hand calculations to determine radiator area needed to dispel heat from electronics and absorbed from sun. Sized heaters to be used on electronics during cold portions of flight. Performed preliminary analysis on use of passive heat pipes to transfer heat to radiator surface. Worked with NASA engineers to validate design in various orbit cases using ThermalDesktop FEA software. Created basic CAD model of lunar lander to drive full-size prototype. Travelled to NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center to meet with engineers to review thermal design and test plans.

Pasadena, Ca, Us

Mechanical design intern with JPL's extreme environment robotics group. Main project involved the development and testing of microspine grippers to be used in asteroid retrieval. Tested various microspine flexure designs to characterize lateral and normal gripping capabilities on a variety of asteroid surface simulates. Redesigned flexures to test different flexure stiffnesses and contact angles. Improved flexure hand-manufacturing process to decrease lead time for new flexures. Built full-scale prototype of gripper release mechanism. Build involved creating a complete CAD assembly in SolidWorks and then using rapid prototyping techniques, such as 3D printing, laser cutting, and machining, to build the prototype. Mechanism used a single vertical motion and translated it to a rotational and vertical displacement utilizing a CAM ring. Aided in testing of anchoring drill bit in asteroid simulate. Developed test stand capable of testing anchoring strength and various pull angles. Tested rock simulates of different density to optimize anchor angle. Hand-machined aluminum parts for drill bit/anchor assembly, including drill torque transmission plate and anchor flexure mounts.

Member of design team within Drexel' s Space Systems Lab responsible for prototyping a mechanical deployment system for an origami solar cell to be used on CubeSats. The project involved taking on the work of a senior design team and developing a way to deploy their origami solar cell. The final design utilized extendable arms attached to the array. The arms wound in on themselves to create a torsional spring that was released with a pin mechanism. 3D printing was used to iterate through designs. The final prototype can be viewed through http://satellite.mem.drexel.edu/#projects and by selecting the Sunbird video.

Greenbelt, Md, Us

Member of the thermal coating's lab at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for a summer internship position. Main research involved examining and limiting particle fallout of thermal coatings such as Z93C55 and NS43C. Prepared test samples with varying levels of binder solution and then tested on acoustic table. Analyzed particulate fallout using microscope. Examined the sub-surface structure and thermal properties of coatings by dry sanding samples of varying thicknesses. Improved coating application procedures through surface masking and post-process texturing. Designed and constructed a thermal oven for curing of MLP on solar panels. Aided in day to day hardware operations, including all 3D printing for lab. Investigated how to print micro-patterns using COTS printers in order to create patterns to be used to texture surface coatings.

Master’S Degree, Mechanical Engineering

Education record