Overview
On the Starship program, I designed and manufactured a vacuum drying vehicle checkout system (colloquially called the “Kirby cart”) used to systematically determine if the 100s of feet of 1/2" diameter igniter and pneumatics lines of Starship and the Booster are dry AND quickly dry them if they aren’t. This prevents system malfunction on the pad when cryogenics are introduced, as any moisture would condense and freeze due to extreme temperatures, freezing vital system control valves in one state.
I coordinated the complete lifecycle including design, manufacturing, production, and internal process adoption. My role involved using thermodynamic properties to determine dryness or accelerate drying dozens of tubing branches throughout the vehicle.
Previously, a hand-held vacuum pump was used to “help” make the lines drier, but process inconsistencies led to loss and damage of Starship vehicles. I successfully created a deterministic process that reduced the checkout operation from 24+ hours (undetermanistic) to ~2 hours (now fully deterministic) on nominal systems, helping SpaceX meet manufacturing and preflight refurbish rate goals.
Da rocket
Simple example of thin lines used for pneumatics and igniter control (not from SpaceX, just random illustration)