Introduction

For my senior engineering capstone at Taylor University, I worked with Tima Ogundare to design and build a thermal vacuum test system for the SkyForge project. SkyForge develops autonomous robots to build large structures in orbit, so components must be tested in space-like conditions on Earth.

Our system simulates Low-Earth Orbit by reaching very low pressures and wide temperatures. The vacuum chamber goes from ~760 Torr to about 7.6 × 10⁻⁶ Torr. The thermal range is roughly −60 °C to +125 °C. We integrated a stainless-steel chamber with roughing and turbomolecular pumps, pressure gauges, vacuum-rated electrical feedthroughs, temperature sensors, and an internal heater.

My responsibilities included component selection, system design, thermal simulations in Autodesk Fusion 360, fabricating the heater assembly, integrating electrical and vacuum systems, and testing. The project combined mechanical, thermal, electrical, manufacturing, and controls work. The completed system gives Taylor a ground-based test platform for SkyForge and supports future space-related research.