Mission Design for the CubeSat OUFTI-1

CHAPTER 11.TESTSof asking for some notching as soon as the damping coefficients of our systemare experimentally known.A thermal balance test will be performed at the same time of the thermalvacuum test. An acoustic test should not be carried out, because the facilityforeseen for the test cannot perform such a test and because the acoustic vibrationsneed to be considered only for huge surfaces.Before, during and after tests verifications will take place including dimensionalchecks, visual inspection and functional test.The University of Liège disposes of two important test facilities that will beused for OUFTI-1.Vibration and environment tests will be performed at Liège Space Center (CSL),an university research center which is also an ESA-coordinated test facility. Inthis facility, satellites (like Planck) and space instruments are usually tested.Even more important in the present context, the CubeSat Compass-1 was alsotested with the cooperation of German and Belgian students, supervised byCSL staff.Electromagnetic compatibility test will be instead performed at the ElectromagneticCompatibility Laboratory of the university. Since 2003, it is accreditedby the Belgian Organization for Accreditation (BELAC) under the ISO 17025norm.In principle, radiation tests are also possible at IPNAS, an university researchcenter, but they will probably performed only for some electronic equipment.11.2 Mechanical testsDuring launch, a satellite experiences an extremely hard dynamical environment.It is in fact stressed at all the frequencies depending on the missionphase:• Continuous accelerations due to launcher’s ascension. They don’t usuallygenerate problems and do not need to be tested.• Sinus vibrations at low frequency (f