Engineering Assistant/Test Technician
As a test technician and engineering assistant at Maxar, I tested satellite electronics to ensure they are resilient even in the most extreme conditions, Due to the high value and the proprietary nature of the hardware designs, I can not document and post the hardware or the specific details of the process here. However I can say what tests were conducted in general and what they entail.
In order to ensure a satellite does not fail when it is in space, a series of functional tests under extreme conditions must be conducted. Some of these tests include vacuum, high and low temperature and vibration testing. Functional testing in short is a test which verifies all functionality of the electronics, and verifies that all measurable data points are within the hardware's specifications. Thermal/Vacuum testing ("T-Vac") involves bringing the space inside a chamber containing the hardware to a vacuum, and performing functional tests and additional powered tests on the hardware in order to test the durability of the hardware. The test is constructed in a way to emulate the extremes of environments and temperatures it will experience while in space. Vibration testing is exactly as it sounds. Vibration applied to hardware to test it's durability under various frequencies. This is done to simulate vibrations of liftoff when launching a rocket containing the satellite. Every piece of hardware requires all of these tests to be done in order to be accepted and sold to a customer, along with additional tests of larger sub-assemblies and later the entire satellite. As you could imagine, with all the different components of a satellite, this is a very time consuming process and is the reason why satellites are very expensive. Now that i know the amount of blood sweat and tears that goes into manufacturing a satellite, I am much more appreciative of GPS, satellite radio and other luxuries I used to take for granted. |
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Photo used under Creative Commons from p_a_h