Precision deployment is an enabling technology for future NASA large aperture missions. Possible concept missions include optical, infrared, sub-millimeter, or microwave apertures too large to fit unfolded in a launch shroud. Dimensional stability is the overriding structural design driver for these large deployable apertures. The stability is driven by constraints derived from the system's mass and structural stability and to thermal and dynamical loads. As the aperture size increases, and the systems mass density is correspondingly decreased, the ability to test the performance of these apertures in a 1-g environment requires both a unique facility and special testing methodologies. This talk will describe a facility under development that includes an enclosure with extreme environmental control, a metrology systems for measuring deployment precision and aspects of an integrated modeling system that will be validated in the facility. Though built to the demanding specifications of deployed optical systems, this talk will focus on components of the facility specific to space-based microwave and millimeter wave antenna systems. The first component of the facility is an enclosure with 10m × 5m × 3m (L × W × H) usable volume that is controlled under ambient temperature to thermal stability of <0.01 C°/Hr, acoustic control of <35 dBA and seismic control of <10 ¿gs. The enclosure includes a gravity offload system and allows development of single and multi-petal test articles. Instrumentation in the facility includes three-dimensional videogrammetry system capable of absolute measurement accuracy less than 1 millimeter, and a laser vibrometer system for modal testing.


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    Title :

    A Precision Deployable Aperture System Facility


    Contributors:
    Cwik, Tom (author) / Agnes, Greg (author) / Moussessian, Alina (author) / Norton, Charles (author) / Zhao, Feng (author)


    Publication date :

    2007-03-01


    Size :

    4050069 byte





    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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