Redstone Arsenal develops 'space' technology

HUNTSVILLE, AL: There are a lot of rooms that look like these on Redstone Arsenal: Erasable whiteboards tattooed with formulas and diagrams, racks of equipment with switches and glowing numbers, ergonomic office chairs in front of dozens of computer keyboards and flat screens ...
In this particular suite of rooms, the furnishings and infrastructure have just been unpacked and connected. This is the Army Space and Missile Defense Command's new Concepts Analysis Lab, officially opened this week.

It's one place where SMDC is identifying and exploring emerging technology and ideas to see whether they're worth pursuing to develop new tools to help warfighters around the globe.

It's also where they are developing future ranks of engineers and researchers.

"It's really key to growing our work force," said Debra Wymer, director of SMDC's Test and Warfighter Solutions Center.
....
Engineering students don't sit around dreaming of hours spent in conference rooms or preparing briefings, he said. "When I got the opportunity to get into a lab environment and do more hands-on, I jumped at it."

Nash tries to keep the student researchers out of meetings and makes sure they get "real" work while at the lab.

"There's a whole different culture down here that we've tried to instill," he said.
....
Today, the spacious, new CAL has about 20 student workers in the summer months and about eight through the school year, Nash said. Those from the local colleges can more easily juggle work and school at the same time during the fall and spring, but SMDC gets students from all over the country, including the military academies.

He said they've gotten a boost from the Department of Defense SMART Scholarship - Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation - which pays students a full scholarship, stipend, insurance, and more to encourage science and technology studies.

Stephanie Cleveland of Geraldine, who'll turn 21 in about a week, is a SMART scholar in the lab, where she's been an intern for three years. She had planned to be a doctor, but her math interest and skills led her to major in electrical engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where she'll graduate next May.

"Right now, I've been working on a lot of medical research," she said, explaining her SMDC duties. Cleveland's looking at mammograms, at how the cancer hides in the imagery.

"We're hoping to transition that into radar images, looking for missiles in clutter," she said. "It's kind of the same principle."

When Cleveland first heard about the chance to work for the government, she assumed it would be filing and running errands.

"I actually get to do real work," she said. "I get to work on projects by myself, and I think that's really cool. ...

"I plan on staying here."

Mark Ray stayed. It had been his goal to work for Alabama Power, but the lab experience changed his mind.

"They started giving me real things to do, and it progressed," he said, pausing from his work in the CAL's new "clean room." Eventually, the SMDC will build prototypes and equipment destined for orbit here.

"It's interesting and challenging work, something that you don't do everywhere," he said.

Ray, 25, of Anniston, was a co-op student in the lab and has earned a master's in electrical engineering from Auburn University. He is now lead engineer for further development of the portable ground station for SMDC-ONE, the Army's experimental nanosatellite expected to ride into orbit this year.

"They're already designing modifications to what we've received from the contractor. And they're looking at the next-generation design, trying to do that in-house," Nash said.

"This has been the best job I could have ever hoped for," Ray said. "It's been great."
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