Publication Date:
2013-08-31
Description:
It was recently suggested that photochemically deposited contamination, originating from volatiles outgassed by a spacecraft, may be responsible for the anomalous degradation in power seen on the GPS Block 1 vehicles. In an attempt to confirm, or deny, the photochemical deposition rates predicted, a study was undertaken to design a flight experiment to be incorporated on the GPS vehicles currently in production. The objective was to develop an inexpensive, light weight instrument package that would give information on the contamination levels within a few months of launch. Three types of apparatus were studied, Quartz Crystal Microbalances, (QCM's), modified solar cells, and calorimeters. A calorimeter was selected due primarily to its impact on the production schedule of the GPS vehicles. An analysis of the sensitivity of the final design is compared to the predicted contamination accumulation rates in order to determine how long after launch it will take the experiment to show the effects of photochemical contamination.
Keywords:
SPACECRAFT DESIGN, TESTING AND PERFORMANCE
Type:
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, 16th Space Simulation Conference Confirming Spaceworthiness Into the Next Millennium; p 435-446
Format:
application/pdf
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