Matthew McGrath

Synopsis: 

I was sitting at my desk when my boss came to me and said his boss’s boss told me to go to a building on the ARMY side of Redstone Arsenal and help resolve a technical problem. When I got there the people looked at me and asked what I was doing here. I told them I did not know.

As you know Engineers solve problems using physics, math, testing, data and analysis and their experience. We are not magicians. After a while they told me their device, an Automatous Robotic steam power Moon Lander, had broken all 3 of its mechanical restraints and smashed into a rope restraining net.

I find myself in a position that no engineer would want to be in. I knew nothing about the project, no data, electrical schematics, mechanical diagrams or operating systems information.

I asked what had happened with the first test of the Warm Gas Test Article (WGTA) and was told it went extremely bad. If the rope netting had not been there it would have destroyed itself.

The significant event that occurred was the mechanical restraints breaking at lift-off.

When they broke the WGTA the ground was lost and caused a static discharge (arc).

The arc created a voltage spike that coupled into the cable going to the Autonomous Navigation and Control Module (AN&CM) and caused it to reset.

Thus, the WGTA did not know where it was and kept the steam propulsion going until the Emergency Shutdown was activated.

This presentation describes my task to eliminate/minimize the arcing-effects.

Biography:

Martin Matthew McGrath now retired after an illustrious 50 plus years in the Aerospace industry. Matthew started his career with IBM on the Saturn Apollo/ATM Skylab/Apollo-Soyuz projects. Over the next years he worked for various companies; Teledyne Brown, USBI – Pratt & Whitney, Computer Science Corporation, Morgan Research Corp, Stanley Associates and Jacobs Engineering. He has worked many projects over the years, i.e.; Spacelab I, II, and III, Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters and Range Safety Systems, Shuttle Main Engine Program Controller Modification, Space Launch System (SLS) Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) and MSFC Robotic Lander (Warm Gas Test Article) as a subject matter expert in the area of Electromagnetic Effects and Environments (EME).

Matthew has received various awards for his work at NASA, a Silver Snoopy Astronaut Award for the Solid Rocket Booster Design Certification Review/Return to Flight; a Silver Achievement Medal, Participation in MSFC Robotic Lander (Warm Gas Test Article) Program and a Space Flight Awareness, Team Award for Participation in the Space Shuttle Lightning Protection activities.  He is an IEEE Life Member and past Chair of the EMC Chapter of the IEEE Huntsville Section.