Summer 2023 activities in MIST

Students have been busy with various tasks during the summer break. In addition to the activities shown below the Functional Testing team has been very active sorting out bugs and glitches and verifying correct functioning of subsystems. The Onboard Software team has met on-line every Friday (except one) all summer long to discuss tasks.

1 June – water-jet cutting of vibration adapter plate

The work was carried out at the KTH Prototype Center.

High-pressure water jet with an abrasive (sand) cut a circle in this 25 mm thick Al plate in 20 minutes

The cut is finished.

What was left!

8 June – Practice vibration test

A dummy satellite weighing 2 kg composed of the fit check model of the SEAM Cubesat with a steel mass added on the inside was used as a test specimen. The purpose was to get acquanted with the vibrator and the vibration test acdaoter as well as the instrumentation. The test was carried out on the KTH campus at the Marcus Wallenberg Laboratory (MWL) at Teknikringen 8.

Inserting the dummy satellite in the vibration adapter.

The vibration adapter mounted on the vibrator at the MWL. The water-cut plate in use.

22-24 June – Satellite Integration Rehearsal

This was carried out at the MIST Integration Lab at Teknikringen. The flight structure was used together with 3D-printed mock-ups of all subsystems and experiments as well as physcally flight-representative electrical harness.

All 3-D-printed units mounted on the flight structure.

Coaxial cables from the mock satellite transceiver are inserted in the mock antenna system. Students are wearing gloves like during the real integration of the flight satellite.

The satellite mock-up equipped with simulated solar panels made of black-anodized aluminium. The mock panels have approximately the same thermal characteristics as real solar panels.

The satellite mock-up in the transport container (to be placed in a padded Peli box).

26 June – Rig for the communications and deployment test

For testing the deployment of solar panels and antennas as well as simulating the bringing into use of the satellite in orbit a special test is planned. The satellite is partially assembled and the deployable items (the Hold-Down and Release Mechanism – HDRM for the solar panels, and the Antenna System – AntS) are placed so that they can be easily removed and refurished after the test. The satellite mock-up was used to rehearse setting up the test configuration.

The HDRM and AntS mock-ups are mounted on top of the rest of the satellite. The transparent boxes on each side catch the antennas and the pieces released by HDRM. Antistatic plastic cover them.

A close-up of the test mock set-up.

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