Meet: Frederick W. Adams

Who I Am

Currently I am working in NASA Design Engineering, GSE Instrumentation and Controls Division, a matrixed management environment with several projects. I am a Project Engineer / Lab Lead in an area known as the Special Instrumentation Lab (SPIL), mainly on the Automated Window Inspection Device (AWID) Project. AWID is still GSE, but is not used at launch time. It is used during shuttle flow operations to inspect the Orbiter windows for micrometeorite impact damage caused during a previous launch, orbital operations or re-entry. It utilizes video imaging and processing technology to aid the operators in inspecting the windows in a more reliable manner than the current tedious manual method.

I am also involved in Laser Shearography, a mechanism for sensing extremely small dimensional movement from a remote distance, Hazardous Gas Detection System HGDS/2000, a replacement for the gas detection systems currently installed in the mobile launcher.

My Career Journey

Professionally, I have a fair technical education with substantial hands-on technician experience, a BSEE (FIT, 1981) and MSEM (UCF, 1996). Due to the timing of the Viet Nam war, I was unable to complete college after high school (I was almost half way through an engineering degree) when I enlisted in the US Navy. I worked as an ordnance / torpedo technician for almost four years. I maintained and operated Mark-44 anti-submarine torpedoes. These were launched from either aircraft, manned or unmanned helicopters or surface ships at submerged submarine targets. During my time in the Navy I was stationed at Great Lakes (Illinois), Key West (Florida), Iceland and Rhode Island and Boston (Massachusetts). My primary work involved safe handling and testing of ordnance in all forms from initiators to warheads.

When I left the Navy I went back and completed an associate's degree at Brevard community college. After that, I worked in Tampa as an apprentice technician on marine electronics (commercial fishing vessels, yachts and freighters). I came back to the east coast of Florida after a brief stint as a passenger / technician aboard a sailboat for three months. I was hired by Federal Electric at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and worked in the Wave Analysis Lab as a bench technician where I repaired equipment and analyzed recorded data from various quick-response type tests, including one known as the SRB Tow Test, where mockups of the booster rockets that are currently used with Shuttle were instrumented and towed offshore at KSC to acquire engineering data on the dynamics of returning the boosters to KSC after launch. [Read about Frederick Adams' work in the lab by reading his additional thoughts.]

I Had Worked at the Tail End of the Apollo Program

I had worked at the tail end of the Apollo program (Apollo 16 and 17), and feel that I made a contribution to that progtram, however small. Prior to being laid off, since I was told that the job would exist for only about a year or so, I held a night job at Port Canaveral where I worked as a marine electronics technician. My work there involved installation, sales and service of shipboard RADAR, SONAR, LORAN (A/C), HF-SSB, Automatic Pilots into pleasure boats, yachts, commercial fishing trawlers, and freighters. After the layoff, I worked in Port Canaveral until 1979 when I decided to go back and complete my engineering degree.

After Graduating . . . I Worked on a Manatee Project

After graduating from Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, in 1981, I started working as an engineer for a NASA contractor, Computer Sciences Corporation. I worked on a manatee project, to try to determine if manatees could be located by sonar from a moving vessel in the intracoastal waterway between the inlet at Port Canaveral and the Solid Rocket Booster refurbishment facility at Cape Canaveral. [Read about Frederick Adams' responsibilities at KSC by reading his additional thoughts.]

I changed from an operation-based to a design-oriented contractor in 1984 and started working as a design engineer at Planning Research Corporation (PRC) (1984 - 1987). [Read about Frederick Adams' accomplishments at PRC by reading his additional thoughts.] While at PRC I injured my back doing yardwork and was out of work for three months. During that time I studied digital system design and acquired an Amateur Extra Radio Operators License (AA4EZ). I left PRC in 1987 to work for NASA .

Responsibilities at NASA

Management responsibilities after joining NASA in 1987 have centered around the operation and development of Ground Support Equipment (GSE). GSE is hardware that usually interfaces with flight hardware, but does not fly. It must be protected from the effects of launch blast and rocket engine exhaust. It must sustain operation in severe acoustic and high vibration environments at the launch pad.

I worked in the Shuttle launch operations environment on the Hazardous Gas Detection System (HGDS) in order to acquire operational experience in preparation for joining NASA Design Engineering (at KSC). I applied electronic and mechanical engineering skills, project management, economics, and quality control, which are techniques used to assure that the requirements of the users (launch Operations Team) are met at minimal cost and in a timely manner.

Personal Information

I was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Nov. 1944. My dad was a civil engineer, and he worked for Pan American, under contract to the US Air Force, maintaining the facilities on the downrange tracking sites at Grand Bahama Island, Eleuthera, San Salvador and Ascension. I grew up in Cocoa Beach, Florida, surfing and scuba diving both offshore and in underwater caves throughout the state. My hobbies involve electronic / mechanical projects and inventions, custom software development (instrumentation / interfaces), and lately day trading, stocks, bonds and equities. I am occasionally active on the Internet, looking at ideas other people think about or are concerned about, that might have technical solutions in some manner.

I am a member of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), the Planetary Society and the National Space Society. I am interested in aquaculture as a mechanism for meeting the future protein needs of people worldwide. I am optimistic about mankind being able to use technology to solve our social problems, having survived the cold war and the nuclear threat that existed during that time period. I am interested in cosmology and geology, particularly the recent movement in awareness of the media to meteor impact and volcanism.

Archived Chats

• November 12, 1998