Delivering Mission-Critical Support from the Ground Up
Founded in support of NASA’s space race, BRPH has played a big role in facility development at every major U.S. launch complex.
Our specialized design solutions for ground support equipment (GSE) help optimize operations, maximize cost savings, and reduce the incidence of failure, , no matter how complex the assembly operations are.
Our team understands design requirements for moving loads that might be considered too difficult or impossible to move. We offer solutions for positioning precisely machined equipment components through the assembly process. And, we work collaboratively with your staff to find the best way to transport heavy, delicate, cumbersome, or odd-sized loads across the aisle or down the road.
With every project, the BRPH team looks for ways to anticipate your needs, improve the process and help meet demanding delivery schedules, including:
- Facility Integration: Our multidisciplinary team understands your overall mission and can anticipate the impact of GSE solutions on large-scale assembly and launch facilities.
- Reliability: We look at more than final testing results for reliable systems. Our team conducts structural, thermal, and assembly analysis and considers redundant systems, materials and coatings, and fastening methods, so equipment performs in your unique operating environment.
- Cost Efficiency: We listen to understand how project stakeholders define “cost-effective” and develop solutions in line with those metrics. Our design alternatives consider the function of single-use versus long-term production solutions and modify off-the-shelf equipment to meet specific needs.
Core Services:
- Concept Studies – CONOPS development and concept generation, trade studies, risk analysis, FMECA, and life cycle O&M analysis.
- Preliminary and Final Design of GSE – Technical requirements definition and logical decomposition; documentation and 3D CAD modeling; finite element analysis of structures and thermal environments; mechanism motion dynamic simulation; identification and generation of interface control documents; and product integration into new or existing infrastructure.
- Operations and Sustainment – Reverse engineering of existing mechanisms and structures; analysis of wear, thermal, erosion, fatigue, and other launch environment failure modes.
- Interface Control – Technical generation and evaluation of physical, electronic, hydraulic, and pneumatic interfaces.
- Integrated Team – Multiple in-house licensed PEs to sign and seal GSE design documents and analysis.
Additional GSE Services:
- Airflow and fluid mechanics, thermal, structural analysis
- Test stand structural FEM analysis
- Radiation, convection and conduction heat analysis
- Heat shielding designs for test stand/launch pads
- Refractory concrete design for blast deflectors and ducts
- Steel and aluminum design for highly loaded flight hardware
- Mechanism design and integration for actuator-driven motion
- Ablative schedule coating development
- Blast shielding analysis and design for launch environments
- Manufacturing and assembly tooling design
- Transport design
Meet the Experts:
Get to know Derek Nolek, National Practice Leader for Ground Support Equipment.
