INTEGRAL thermal vacuum tests - 8 May 2002
8 May 2002
Day 19 of the thermal vacuum test: the last tests before the warming up and repressurization of the Large Space Simulator (LSS), a giant thermal-vacuum chamber, have been successfully completed. The satellite is now in standby, slowly warming up, before the recovery of the thermal-vacuum chamber. It is important to keep the satellite warm to avoid contamination that will tend to deposit on the coldest surfaces in the chamber.
Once the temperature of the satellite is deemed acceptable, the shrouds lining the LSS will slowly be warmed up, nitrogen will be injected and at 100 mbar pressure, air will be vented in the chamber. This will mark the completion of the test which has run very smoothly and has confirmed INTEGRAL's ability to survive in space environment.
Large Space Simulator (LSS) has been the home of INTEGRAL over the past 19 days at a pressure of about 2 x 10-6 mbar. This is equivalent to having the satellite at an altitude of about 200 km above the Earth surface. |
The only visibility to the satellite is via two small ports on the Large Space Simulator (LSS) main cylinder such as the one seen here, and video image from a camera placed inside. Other than this visual contact, the monitoring team is constantly watching the behaviour of the satellite from the data collected. |
