I worked with Sierra Space as an engineering technician for several years. It was a very valuable, eye opening experience, allowing me to work with many exotic materials, specialized processes, and high end equipment.
Much of the work I did was electrical and mechanical assembly, from hand soldering spaceflight PCBs, to assembling high pressure gas service components in a clean room. Regular trainings in NASA standards for cable harness construction, soldering, adhesive application, spaceflight work behavior, ESD, and FOD (foreign object debris) prepared me with a foundation of methodical, precise, and careful work habits.
Besides electrical and mechanical assembly, my time was split between the space botany team, the machine shop, the chemistry lab, and the test bench.
Pictures were forbidden due to classified work, so most of the cool stuff like the rocket test facilities, vibration testing, and chemistry work can’t be shown, but there are a few publicly released photos I can share.
This is a photo of me working on a smoke detector which was to be used in the Dreamchaser. It was a bit more advanced than your usual smoke detector in part because of the way smoke behaves in microgravity. All electrical work was done with strict ESD precautions.
In the propulsion chemistry lab, I worked on various tests and experiments under the direction of the lead chemist, often having to do with the reaction control thrusters which were designed to use Hydrogen Peroxide as a fuel. This usually involved running a differential scanning calorimetor to study the elemental composition of various compounds and contaminants, as well as the occasional gas chromatography, X-ray florescence analysis, and visit to the electron microscope.
Here is a video showing a test of H2O2 catalytic decomposition using a silver screen coated in samarium oxide.
Here are some various images that show the type of equipment and systems.
