Test, test and test again to survive the hostile conditions of space
Artur Jurkowski from KP Labs' Thermal and Mechanical Engineering Department explains how the Polish aerospace firm tests its data processing unit to ensure it can survive in space.
Transcript
00:00 [Music]
00:05 In the space, the environment is quite different.
00:09 We have no air and the heat removal is much more difficult.
00:14 And we have reproduced such condition on Earth by this machine.
00:19 This chamber is a thermal vacuum chamber.
00:23 It means that inside we can generate the space-like environment.
00:28 There are several tests which are important for our data processing units.
00:33 We are preparing the functional testing.
00:35 It means just turning on and turning off.
00:38 But in sometimes demanding temperature condition.
00:43 For example, minus 40 and plus 65 and even higher or lower temperatures.
00:48 The second tests which we are performing are thermal cycling.
00:52 It means we are driving our devices from minus 40 to 65 in really high speed.
00:59 And then we are repeating such activities several times.
01:03 Because on the low Earth orbit where the satellite is cycling around the Earth,
01:09 the temperature change is really rapid.
01:12 And it's important to represent such condition, changing condition on the ground.
01:18 [Music]