Johns Hopkins University | Applied Physics Laboratory Dragonfly

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) selected Lewis as construction manager for the construction of a new building addition to a high bay clean room satellite facility on its main campus to support the Dragonfly mission. Dragonfly is a NASA mission to explore the chemistry and habitability of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Dragonfly is a rotorcraft lander mission–part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program–designed to take advantage of Titan’s environment to sample materials and determine surface composition in different geologic settings. This project expanded an existing building with an addition and modified the infrastructure to accommodate a new large thermal vacuum chamber in a large mechanical assembly high bay. Other mechanical systems included compressed air extension, new AHUs, a new chiller, and a new exhaust fan interlock with a differential pressure switch to maintain positive pressure in the large mechanical assembly high bay. The addition was approximately 20 feet by 30 feet and houses the “back of house” support equipment. Infrastructure includes new electrical—generator, main distribution panel, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), automatic transfer switch (ATS)—and a LN2 tank farm consisting of a 20,000 gallon LN2 tank and two new vaporizers providing LN2 and GN2.