Industry Related News: United States – July, 2020:
The European Space Agency (ESA) is getting ready to add new satellites to their orbiting collection of 26 crafts traveling around our planet. The Galileo project is intended to serve as “the world’s most precise satellite navigation system” and adding new satellites from their “Batch 3” series will add to their impressive “constellation”. The first two satellites of the “Batch 3” family are set to launch later this year pending a passing grade from an array of environmental tests conducted with their thermal testing equipment and satellite thermal test chamber. Nearly all of the current 26 orbiting crafts received their space evaluation and environmental testing at the ESTEC Test Center, Europe’s largest satellite thermal test chamber facility.
The standardized thermal testing process at ESTEC involves a two week series of analysis in their vacuum thermal test chamber, which they have called Phenix. This custom chamber is superheated to mimic the thermal effects from the sun’s rays to ensure that the structural integrity of the craft is sound and all of the electrical components will continue to function under extreme conditions. Once the satellite has passed the heat tests, the satellite thermal test chamber will be cooled to simulate the dark freezing nature of space by using liquid nitrogen. After their satellite thermal test chamber sessions is complete, they will undergo signal and compatibility testing, solar wing fitting and stress testing, and an acoustic test in the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF), the largest sound testing facility in Europe. All of these vacuum chamber tests are crucial to test the satellite’s functionality under extreme conditions and ensure that it will have a successful launch and a long and fruitful lifespan in orbit. As long as they test successfully, as the 20+ satellites before them have, we’ll have 28 Galileo Satellites in orbit by the end of 2021.
Phys.Org, “Galileo satellites’ Last Step Before Launch“ phys.org, June 2020, Accessed 30 June 2020.
ABOUT KHOURY INDUSTRIES
Khoury Industries is a worldwide leader in temperature testing equipment for device characterization, thermal cycling equipment, and failure analysis. Khoury Industries designs and manufactures custom thermal testing chambers and microwave thermal testing fixtures used in a variety of industries including: military, space, automotive, medical, research, and communication fields. The Khoury Box and the patented ELI-1000 have quickly become industry favorites as thermal testing devices used to ensure the reliability of industrial and electronic products through prolonged exposure to extreme conditions.
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Penny Aicardi
Khoury Industries
5 Mechanic Street
Bellingham, MA 02019
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