While I did learn a lot and complete a few smaller projects, I think that a 12- or semester-long internship would have been much more insightful and fulfilling to me.
Interface GSE 1
My first project at ispace was working on a ground support PCB for interfacing with other development and flight-like PCBs. The main purpose of my GSE board was to connect to any of the development boards to be able to simulate them being on the lander.
The order of operations for the project went something like this:
Create a set of requirements
Compile a list of parts I might need
Begin schematic capture
Review completed schematic draft
Begin PCB layout
Review completed layout draft
Go back and make any necessary changes to schematic or layout
Write ICD (Interface Control Document) -- this is sort of like an internal-use user's manual
Write Bringup document -- this is a document which runs through tests to ensure the board works as intended
Generate BOM (bill of materials)
Receive quotes from manufacturers
notice a very small but important bug with the layout and fix it
Receive new quotes from manufacturers
Order the boards!
For the requirements, I wasn't given a whole lot of information. My mentor and I went over what we wanted the end product to look like, and I set out on designing it. The requirements mostly consisted of certain necessary connectors (driven by other boards that would connect to this one) and features, such as an LVDS override switch.
Interface GSE 2
The main purpose of this board was to emulate different dev- and flight-like boards so that we didn't need to assemble the entire flight hardware suite in order to test one CCA.
One of the main jumps in complexity of this project over my first project was the addition of an MCU. We needed lots of I/O, as well as interoperability with already-stocked programmers for ease of use and efficiency. Luckily, ispace had a few MCUs they had used in previous projects, so after comparing those options, I found one that fit all of my needs. After looking through the selected MCU's datasheet for a while, I began to pick which I/O pins would be connected to other pins on the board. Throughout the project, this would be a common task to come back to, as things change slightly. Similar to my first project, I had a slight jump start with the schematic, since the connector I'd be interfacing with was common amongst other boards.
Dummy Network Interface Card
The main purpose of this board was to act as a test board for the fully-featured version of itself. This means the FPGA and different subcircuits were purposefully removed for this board. This CCA's schematic was completed by ispace's U.S. avionics lead. My task was to work on the PCB layout.
Unfortunately, by the end of my internship, due to other projects taking priority over this one, I was only able to briefly work on this.
Fortunately, I was able to group different components into some areas such as PCIe circuitry, M.2 connector circuitry, and other subcircuits. I believe this will make the next person's work on this quicker, at least initially.