Our mission is to integrate all of the individual components built by the other subsystem teams into a complete and working satellite. Also, the satellite will be put through various types of tests to simulate the space environment in which it is intended to operate.
Team Leaders:
Timothy Sayer
Team Members:
Chris Davenport
The first step in testing is to bench test (just on a bench, not in the satellite) each separate component. Here we just test each sub system by itself without any other components. If anything does not work according to specifications, it will be sent back to its sub system team for revision. After each component has been tested individually, we then will put all the components together into a full system (see diagram below). We will then bench test the whole system and see if it works with each other. Again, if it does not work according to specifications, we will determine the problem, and send the problem areas back to their respective sub system teams for revision. When the whole system works according to specifications, we will move on to stage 2.
Complete System Diagram
Return to the top of the pageIn stage 2 we will begin environmental testing of the components. Here we will subject each sub system component to thermal, vacuum, vibration, and shock testing. The same conditions the satellite will experience in space and its way into space. For the thermal testing we will go from -40 degrees Celsius to 60 degrees Celsius. To obtain the low temperature we will run liquid nitrogen through pipes around each component. To get the high temperature we will surround the component in regular heating coils. We will repeat these cooling/heating cycles for however long we have time to do them. For the vacuum test we will be putting each component into a vacuum chamber and sucking it down to a low atmosphere condition. While in the low atmosphere we will test to see if the materials used in the construction of the satellite start to out gas. This is important because if parts out gas, then they will deteriorate much faster in space and the satellite will not function correctly. For vibration and shock testing we will put each component onto a shake table which will shake each component the same as it will be when launching into space upon a rocket.
Once each of the environmental tests are completed, we will bench test each component yet again to see if they still work before moving onto the next bench test. This will be done exactly the same as in stage 1 of testing.
Once all the bench tests are complete, we will integrate every component into the actual cube structure of the satellite. We will then test the system as a whole again to make sure it still works. We will then test the communications of the satellite from the cub sat to the ground station. Once the satellite passes all the tests, it will have the final okay to be shipped off to be launched into space.
