The paper presents the upgrade of a thermovacuum facility that was originally designed for testing the cube corner reflectors of LARES satellite. The upgrade consists in the possibility to control the tests remotely over the internet. Part of the upgrade is at the design phase and part has been realized. Specifically the turbomulecular and scroll pumps, the PT100 thermal sensors, the strain gages, the switching of the led, recently added inside the chamber along with the videocamera for visual monitoring of the tests, have been already implemented. Those can be accessed through a public domain VNC software which can be installed free for research and educational purposes. More demanding in terms of cost and reliability is the automation of the manipulator, the control of the liquid nitrogen flow and the switching of the solar simulator. In particular the high power required for the solar simulator suggest to avoid switching on and off the device. It is under investigation the possibility of using a moving screen. A remotely controlled valve that can reliably be The automation and the possibility to control remotely the facility will allow to run tests over the night more easily. Also the possibility to show the facility during operation to large classes and even to let the students to run their own tests from the class, home or anywhere else, under the remote supervision of a tutor will increase significantly the potential of the thermovacuum facility. An example of test using this mode of operation will also be presented.
A remote controllable thermovacuum facility for CubeSats and small payloads / Paris, Claudio; Sindoni, Giampiero. - ELETTRONICO. - (2015), pp. 1-10. (Intervento presentato al convegno IAA conference on university satellite missions and cubesat workshop tenutosi a Roma nel 30 Novembre - 5 Dicembre 2015).
A remote controllable thermovacuum facility for CubeSats and small payloads
PARIS, Claudio;SINDONI, GIAMPIERO
2015
Abstract
The paper presents the upgrade of a thermovacuum facility that was originally designed for testing the cube corner reflectors of LARES satellite. The upgrade consists in the possibility to control the tests remotely over the internet. Part of the upgrade is at the design phase and part has been realized. Specifically the turbomulecular and scroll pumps, the PT100 thermal sensors, the strain gages, the switching of the led, recently added inside the chamber along with the videocamera for visual monitoring of the tests, have been already implemented. Those can be accessed through a public domain VNC software which can be installed free for research and educational purposes. More demanding in terms of cost and reliability is the automation of the manipulator, the control of the liquid nitrogen flow and the switching of the solar simulator. In particular the high power required for the solar simulator suggest to avoid switching on and off the device. It is under investigation the possibility of using a moving screen. A remotely controlled valve that can reliably be The automation and the possibility to control remotely the facility will allow to run tests over the night more easily. Also the possibility to show the facility during operation to large classes and even to let the students to run their own tests from the class, home or anywhere else, under the remote supervision of a tutor will increase significantly the potential of the thermovacuum facility. An example of test using this mode of operation will also be presented.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
