FASTRAC Satellite Completes Thermal/Vacuum Test
January 3, 2005
Glenn Lightsey
FASTRAC Satellite 1 completed a rigorous Thermal/Vacuum (T/V) test during the week before Christmas in a specially designed chamber at NASA's Johnson Space Center. FASTRAC-1 performed flawlessly, providing telemetry and responding to radio commands throughout, and the 3-day test was completed with no anomalies and no resets. University of Texas undergraduate and graduate students got the opportunity to work alongside professional NASA technicians and engineers during the test.
NASA's JSC generously agreed to donate their facilities and expertise in an educational outreach activity to enable the FASTRAC student team to test their hardware at a professional space facility. The FASTRAC hardware was treated the same as all flight hardware that is routinely tested at JSC. The student team was first subjected to a pretest review in front of a panel of NASA experts. Following the review, the three day test commenced on Dec. 20-22.
The FASTRAC-1 satellite, which had recently completed integration, was pulled to a hard vacuum of <0.1 millitorr (approximately one millionth the atmospheric pressure at sea level) and saw a series of environmental temperature cycles from a cold case of -121 degrees F to a hot case of +141 degrees F (NASA thermal tests are performed using the Fahrenheit temperature scale). These pressure and temperature extremes are designed to re-create the operational environment that the satellite will see in space.
The satellite performed perfectly with all subsystems operating nominally during the entire test. It was noted that the most temperature-sensitive components, the batteries, exceeded their maximum operating temperature by about 10 degrees F during the hot case, but it is believed that this can be accommodated by slightly reducing the thermal blanketing material inside the satellite, allowing more radiative cooling to occur.
News Archive
December 1, 2011 - FASTRAC Digipeating Announcement by Sebastián Muñoz
March 9, 2011 - FASTRAC is Separating!! by Sebastian Muñoz
November 20, 2010 - FASTRAC Is In Orbit! by
November 19, 2010 - FASTRAC is launching Tonight!!!! by
November 2, 2010 - FASTRAC is launching this Month!!! by S. Munoz and E. Ferguson
April 19, 2010 - FASTRAC Ready to go into Space!! by Sebastian Munoz
June 26, 2008 - FASTRAC Satellites Get Updated Software, New Antennas by Stephen Clark
March 8, 2008 - FASTRAC Satellites to Set Up and Ship Out! by Eric Hagen
August 27, 2006 - Satellites Undergoing Testing at AFRL by Glenn Lightsey
June 25, 2006 - FASTRAC Satellites Leave Texas by Greg Holt
June 14, 2006 - FASTRAC Frequency Request Submitted by Glenn Lightsey
December 15, 2005 - FASTRAC Mission Receives Critical D.O.D. Ranking for Launch by Jamin Greenbaum
April 20, 2005 - FASTRAC Personnel Changes by Glenn Lightsey
January 11, 2005 - FASTRAC Victorious, Headed to Space! by Glenn Lightsey
January 7, 2005 - FASTRAC Headed to Nevada for Competition by Glenn Lightsey
January 3, 2005 - FASTRAC Satellite Completes Thermal/Vacuum Test by Glenn Lightsey
December 19, 2004 - Satellite Integration Nears Completion by Glenn Lightsey
December 7, 2004 - FASTRAC Thermal Vac Testing Progresses by Greg Holt
November 28, 2004 - Solar Cells See Sunlight by Greg Holt
July 27, 2004 - FASTRAC Separation Test aboard KC-135 a Success! by FASTRAC team
May 15, 2004 - Balloon Satellite by FASTRAC team
