Student experiment “Artery in Microgravity” passes the ICECubes Interface Test. Next stop, ISS
In brief
The Orbit Your Thesis! team from ISAE SUPAERO and Politecnico di Torino have recently been moving ahead full speed with their project, reaching the latest milestone by passing the ‘interface test’ in Space Applications Services headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
In-depth
As soon as the vibration tests were over in ESEC-Galaxia, the team headed to Zaventem in Brussels to meet with ICECubes Services engineers who ran the experiment through rigorous checks to make sure that the hardware would not only fit in the ICECubes Facility, but would also function as expected with commands being routed through a simulated mission-realistic way.
After a few mechanical and electrical checks and modifications, the team were able to establish a remote connection with their experiment and run it as if it were already on the International Space Station. This test was the final in a series of environmental checks such as Electro Magnetic Compatibility, Vacuum, Acoustic/noise levels and Vibration. All tests had their challenges for the students who worked around the clock to meet the tight deadlines.
Payloads destined for space travel are subjected to this plethora of stress tests to ensure mission success and safety during launch and operations on the ISS. Now that all test reports are available, the students will be able to present them to ESA Academy and an ESA Safety panel, thus passing the final hurdle of the Flight Acceptance Review currently planned for early March. A few weeks after that, in May 2022 the experiment Cube will be launched with SpaceX Crew Resupply Service-25 after which the students will perform their experiment in weightlessness.
If you are interested in participating in educational programmes within the ESA Academy, and in particular Orbit Your Thesis! please check this website.