This week commemorates the 55th anniversary of Apollo 11, the monumental mission that culminated in man’s first steps on the moon. The Apollo 11 team achieved a historic accomplishment – a feat that symbolized relentless innovation, unwavering commitment, and profound human ambition. The Apollo 11 expedition stands not only as a pinnacle of post-War American ingenuity, but as an effort that accelerated aerospace technology and ignited imaginations of people across the globe.
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education plays a crucial role in perpetuation the tradition of the Apollo 11 mission – a tradition of curiosity and exploration for further knowledge. By imparting fundamental critical thinking skills, STEM education prepares future generations to build upon the achievements of the past.
Omega's Mission
As a company of engineers – a company that works with engineers, for engineers, by engineers – Omega has held a strong, ongoing commitment to STEM education, ensuring that its impact on science, technology and human achievement endures for years to come.
In our continuing efforts to support and encourage access and interest in STEM education across the globe, Omega has sponsored many student-run engineering program – including several collegiate rocketry programs.
Oronos Polytechnique Montreal
Founded in 2010, Oronos Polytechnique Montreal is a student-led group specializing in the design and building of sounding rockets. The group is made up of the world’s future engineers, and membership includes over 60 students majoring in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, computer programming, software, and chemical engineering. Their mission is to provide their members with opportunities to apply in-class theory to real-world applications.
As a sponsor of Oronos, Omega has donated several of their American-made, state-of-the-art products, including pressure transducers, pressure snubbers (which protect against pressure surges), and load cells.
Oregon State University’s HALE Rocket Team
The OSU HALE rocket team is a student-led, multidisciplinary team comprised of students majoring in business, physics, biochemistry, computer science, and a variety of engineering disciplines. As a competitor in the Base 11 Space Challenge, HALE competed against other university teams to be the first collegiate rocketry program to successfully launch a single stage liquid bipropellant rocket engine to the Karman line.
As a sponsor of the HALE Rocket Team, Omega proudly donated a selection of our high quality, American-made thermocouples.
To Infinity, and Beyond!
Omega’s work in helping engineers achieve new heights in the world of space exploration does not end at the college level. We are actively working with engineering professionals in the commercial space industry as well – in fact, we are not only assisting these engineers, but our products are solving problems.
The Problem
While the traditional approach to sensor manufacturing has been to design and then test for a specific application, today’s commercial space market requires components to be produced at a lower cost with shorter timelines. Off-the-shelf sensors must meet those needs when possible, so custom sensors or those with special configurations are only used in specific applications and when absolutely necessary.
This requirement recently created a problem for an aerospace customer. They were buying off-the-shelf resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) and assembling them into a mechanical housing they had custom designed for this purpose. However, a high percentage of theses RTDs failed to perform as expected once assembled into the housing. They were unable to determine the cause and needed a solution that would ideally allow them to continue using standard products.
The Omega Solution
Technical specialists from Omega determined that the high failure rate of the RTD assemblies was due to the manner in which they were tested and assembled at the client facility. We recommended a fully assembled solution that incorporated off-the-shelf Omega sensors. We now manufacture the custom housing ourselves based on drawings and samples of the client’s components. We then assemble a standard Omega probe into the housing and subject the unit to the same rigorous inspection and testing procedures that we do for all Omega products before shipment.
And the results speak for themselves: the yield at the customer site increased to 100 percent. Our customer now has the confidence to install OMEGA’s turnkey solution without further testing.
Omega products are time-tested in applications all around this world - and trusted in applications outside of it! Our outstanding team of engineering experts strives to design innovative products that make our customers' applications - no matter how out of this world - attainable. Our comprehensive selection of probe style temperature sensors are used for immersion temperature measurement in liquids, air, gas, and/or wells.
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