Planck Spacecraft Set Up for Fine Balancing
Date: 03 April 2008
Satellite: Planck
Depicts: Flight model spacecraft inside the LSS
Location: Cleanroom at ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Copyright: ESA
The Planck spacecraft is set up for its fine balancing inside the Large Space Simulator (LSS). During four fine balancing sessions between 3 and 9 April the spacecraft was spun up to 30 rpm in light-vacuum conditions, both with and without masses attached to its service module.
With the main door of the LSS still open a dry run in ambient conditions was performed in the morning of 3 April, before the start of the actual fine balancing. This was to verify the stability of the set up and ensure all parts were properly secured.
This image shows the setup on 3 April, with the Planck flight model spacecraft mounted on the balancing machine via three adapters (top to bottom):
- the conically shaped Moment and Product Adapter (MPA)
- the Balancing and Raising Adapter (BRA)
- an additional interface plate
Last Update: 1 September 2019
