Last month Lynn Doepping, a senior mechanical engineering student, and Mark Calhoun, advisor, presented their Spring 2024 senior design project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. 

Doepping, along with fellow engineering students Ian Patterson, ENG’ 24 and Nick Barazna, ENG ‘24, worked with Mark Calhoun on the Space Capsule Simulation project, recreating a portion of the original control panel from the 1962 Mercury Space Capsule. 

The presentation garnered both an in-person and virtual audience, including NASA employees from office locations across the country. Doepping and Calhoun fielded audience questions on design process, operations of the panel, future of the project, etc., while walking in-person audience members through their work on the control panel, including work Calhoun undertook with previous senior design teams on the same project. 

Patterson, now graduated, attended the presentation with Doepping and Calhoun as an audience member. 

Following the presentation, Dr. Denise Cervantes, organizational effectiveness & workforce development manager at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and driving force behind organizing the presentation, provided Doepping, Patterson and Calhoun with a tour of the various departments and facilities on the campus. 

The team toured departments such as electrical engineering, 3D electronics printing, computer science and programming, and integration and testing. Their tour included interactions with each department’s staff and the opportunity to view testing machinery. 

While the NASA presentation is a victory for the Space Capsule Simulation project team, it’s just a portion of Calhoun’s long-term goal in recreating a complete space capsule simulator to be used for educational STEM outreach. With a tangible simulator, young students can get a glimpse at what is possible with a career in STEM.  

Doepping, now in her last semester at the College of Engineering will work with Calhoun to create a flight and space simulator club for students to continue working on the control board amongst other ongoing projects related to the development of a complete space capsule simulator. 

The club already has one active participant, incoming College of Engineering freshman Tyler Baughman. As a high school senior, Baughman worked with College of Engineering advisor Sherwood Polter in his NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems Command) internship, unrelated to the College of Engineering. Through Polter, Baughman learned of Calhoun’s ongoing project and wanted to get involved. As Baughman begins his freshman year at the College of Engineering, he will continue to work on the space capsule simulator project. 

With just a small portion of the capsule being complete, Calhoun has already achieved his goal in inspiring young students to pursue an education and career in the STEM field. 

From their senior design project, Doepping and Patterson have now made invaluable connections at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and are planning another meeting with Cervantes to discuss opportunities in the aerospace engineering field for mechanical engineers.  

After graduating, Doepping hopes to pursue a master's in aerospace engineering and ultimately have a career in the field. A passion she never would’ve discovered if not for her involvement in the senior design project. 

Calhoun states, “I am extremely proud of the Temple Student team along with the teams preceding them to work on a project that has captured the visibility of NASA. This underscores the opportunities that arise through the Senior Design program at Temple, particularly the ongoing, multi-semester Light Aircraft and Space Simulator projects.” 

Students interested in getting involved with the space capsule simulation project can contact Mark Calhoun at [click-for-email]. 

You can learn more about the College of Engineering’s Senior Design program here.