Engineers Bring Solutions to Small Businesses

 

Over the past year, USA engineers participating in the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP) have provided 361 hours to help 23 small businesses across the nation resolve technical difficulties. SATOP recently presented recognition awards to two USA employees for their efforts.

David Gerber, a member of the Flight Crew Equipment and Extravehicular Activity team, received a SATOP Special Achievement Award for his work with a Texas entrepreneur, Joseph Lemelle. The problem was with a unique line of holiday lights called Jingle Bell Christmas Home Lights. One of two lines began burning out after only a couple of hours of operation. Gerber found the problem was in the construction of the control box. Lemelle was able to implement the solution in time for holiday sales.

“Small businesses often can’t afford the engineering expertise they need to resolve technical issues that can threaten their continued success,” said David Braun, a SATOP Texas project engineer. “We were pleased SATOP could provide Jingle Bell Lights with this assistance in time for Joseph to have a successful holiday season.”

David Hermanson Jr. of USA Ground Operations received the SATOP Most Innovative Solutions award for his work in providing a simple and no-cost solution to a problem that was plaguing Proaquatix, a Sebastian Florida company that ships farm-raised ornamental fish in plastic bags. Some of the bags leaked oxygen during shipping, either suffocating or injuring the fish. After reviewing several sealing methods, Hermanson recommended the simple solution of shipping the bags upside down with the seal facing down. The water covered the seal and prevented oxygen from escaping. Proaquatix has decreased mortality rates and injury to the hundreds of thousands of aquarium fish shipped each year and increased their customer satisfaction.

“The solution didn’t increase packaging or shipping costs or the time needed to package the fish,” said Whit Hazelton, Proaquatix Marketing Director.

Established by the United States Congress and funded by NASA, SATOP is a free service designed to provide technical assistance and speed the transfer of space technology to the private sector by assisting small businesses. Its goal is to provide a return on the investment for the general public from their tax dollars that support the space program. In return for this assistance, up to 40 hours for each request, USA and its employees receive funding from SATOP for professional development. SATOP is a cooperative program between the states of Florida, New Mexico, New York and Texas.

A Silver Partner since 2003, USA is now a Platinum-level Alliance Partner, committed to delivering up to 2000 hours each year in support of SATOP Requests for Technical Assistance (RTAs).

Rick Davignon, the Engineering Process Owner and Chair of the Technology Integration Forum, directs the SATOP process at USA.

“‘Design and create an entire new machine’ is too broad a request, whereas ‘Please help me find a paint that will stick to the plastic on my new machine’ would be narrow enough to be solved within constraints,” said Davignon.

New requests are posted every week. At USA, Michelle Rhodes is the central point of contact for interfacing with SATOP. Once assigned, most of these requests are worked completely by telephone, e-mail and fax. A significant number of them are completed in less than 10 hours.

To get involved, an employee can contact his or her USA Technology Manager (TM). A list of TMs can be found by clicking the New Technology link on the USA home page. USA’s SATOP process is documented in FPP-T-01-06, which is available from USA’s Spaceops Electronic Library.

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