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Grant Anderson, P.E. President and CEO, Co-FounderThe company takes a highly disciplined and cost-efficient stepped approach to innovation through which its offerings help its clients fulfill their mission. By systemizing innovation, the company thoroughly completes “success criteria” for each critical program step with full openness to the customer to ensure the delivery of high-quality systems that align with customer specifications and concept of operations. NASA’s system engineering handbook outlines these steps but Paragon has customized them through almost 27 years of doing business across both the government and commercial world.
As part of its unique innovation strategy, Paragon maintains a transparent client engagement approach. Such an approach results in the development of systems that perfectly align with customer specifications.
“It pays to mention that using MS PowerPoint for engineering presentations was one of the reasons listed out in NASA Columbia accident investigation board’s list of causes for the 2003 Columbia disaster. This illustrates the disadvantages of opaque PowerPoint presentation that discourages detail and subtlety,” says Grant Anderson, president and CEO of the company. To that end, Paragon uses traditional technical memos in the developmental and implementation stages of a system design. “Our use of technical memos enables us to be forthright with our clients and helps them analyze the critical parameters of their desired system without losing any key information,” explains Anderson. Alternatively, when the company cannot develop the desired system due to budget or other constraints, the technical memo simplifies the process of explaining to a customer as to why their specifications needto be reconsidered, thereby preventing waste of time and resources. “We combine our 27-year experience of developing life support systems with our emphasis on transparent client engagements to develop systems that readily integrate with a client’s total spacecraft system solution,” adds Anderson.
Highlighting the efficacy of Paragon’s unique engineering approach and leading-edge technological capabilities is a case study where the company built a new heat exchanger/ condenser system for a client. The customer was leveraging a complex “slurper bar”-based system—that captures two-phase mixtures of air and water before separating it with a rotary separator for storage and transport—within their spacecraft. To build an effective alternative to the slurper bar, Paragon categorized the engineering of its system into variables and 3D printed eight different prototypes based on each variable. After testing each prototype, Paragon was able to deliver the solution that best fit the power, pressure, and other requirements of the client’s desired system. “With 3Dprinting, we not only built a functional product but also did it in a way that saved the client a significant amount of time and resources,” mentions Anderson.
According to Anderson, traditional engagements between aerospace manufacturers and space tech providers involve a rigorous process of consolidating a list of requirements for the desired space system. However, due to the tight deadlines from stakeholders, most aerospace corporations struggle to consolidate an accurate list of requirements, which leads to the development of a solution that is not geared to their specific needs. To address the compression of the requirement-to-hardware cycle in the aerospace manufacturing sector, Paragon leverages top-of-the-line 3D printing technology to create prototypes that effectively explore the viability of a design early and quickly.
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We combine our 27-year experience of developing life support systems with our emphasis on transparent client engagements to develop systems that readily integrate with a client’s total spacecraft system solution
Highlighting the efficacy of Paragon’s unique engineering approach and leading-edge technological capabilities is a case study where the company built a new heat exchanger/ condenser system for a client. The customer was leveraging a complex “slurper bar”-based system—that captures two-phase mixtures of air and water before separating it with a rotary separator for storage and transport—within their spacecraft. To build an effective alternative to the slurper bar, Paragon categorized the engineering of its system into variables and 3D printed eight different prototypes based on each variable. After testing each prototype, Paragon was able to deliver the solution that best fit the power, pressure, and other requirements of the client’s desired system. “With 3Dprinting, we not only built a functional product but also did it in a way that saved the client a significant amount of time and resources,” mentions Anderson.
Due to its revolutionary approach to engineering, Paragon has been involved in the development of every life support system used in space missions since 1999. Looking ahead, Paragon plans to maintain its successful record by continuing to build systems leveraging next-gen technologies. Furthermore, the company aims to become the preferred hardware partner in the race to enable simple and affordable space travel and help Earth become an interplanetary civilization. “As long as humanity continues its efforts to explore the unknown horizons of space, our life support systems will continue to transform harsh environments into sustainable habitats,” concludes Anderson.
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Paragon Space Development Corporation
Company
Paragon Space Development Corporation
Management
Grant Anderson, P.E. President and CEO, Co-Founder
Description
Paragon is the premier provider of environmental controls for extreme and hazardous environments. A pioneer in life support and thermal control solutions for mission-critical operations in extreme environments for space, defense, and commercial sectors since 1993
Paragon Space Development Corporation News
Paragon Announces Glenn Wells as COO
As COO, Wells will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of Paragon, establishing plans and strategy to guide Paragon towards specific business goals, and executing the vision of the company's leadership. Glenn Wells comes to Paragon with a significant level of industry experience and corporate background that will be leveraged toward his new role as Paragon's COO.
"Not only does Glenn come to Paragon with deep background knowledge and expertise in the aerospace and defense industry, but he is the right person for our company at a time when existing and emerging commercial, government and international customers are seeing real and robust need for what Paragon designs and produces," said Grant Anderson. "With recent world events, the rapid advancements in technology and space, and the growing needs to support our country's national defense, it will be companies like Paragon that will drive innovation, set new standards, and positively contribute to the enhancement of our national industrial and technological base. With Glenn Wells now onboard, we'll have the right COO to help capitalize on important opportunities before us and to lead the way. On behalf of our company, I am proud to welcome Glenn to Paragon."
Glenn brings several decades' worth of experience, established over thirty years working in several leading aerospace and defense companies, to Paragon. Wells' lengthy career includes roles as Vice President and General Manager at Sun Country Industries, General Manager at Celestica Inc. in Tucson, Arizona, Sr. Vice President & General Manager of Composite Engineering (Military & Defense products), as well as Vice President of Operations for Cubic Defense Systems (Military, Defense & commercial products). Prior to those positions, Glenn spent a decade at Rockwell International. Wells holds a Bachelor's degree from California State University Northridge, a Master's in Business Administration degree from Pepperdine University, and multiple other business certifications.
"I cannot express how honored and excited I am to join Paragon. It is a company that is on the cutting edge of technological design and engineering, vital to supporting our nation's space and defense requirements, and driven by a team of outstanding people who are here for all of the right reasons. I look forward to contributing to Paragon's success immediately," said Glenn Wells.
Paragon has been a pioneer on the forefront of systems designed for extreme environments in sea, land, air, and space for 30 years. Paragon has a successful history of providing design, analysis and/or hardware on every human space program of record since 1999. Since then, Paragon has grown in personnel, design, analysis, manufacturing, and operational capabilities to support the most current and forward-leaning civil and commercial space programs.