Overview and Assessment of NASA's Dawn System Environmental Test Program, Including the End to End Ion Propulsion Hot Fire Test Presented at the 24th Aerospace Testing Seminar, Manhattan Beach, CA April 8 - 10, 2008

摘要

NASA's Dawn mission to the asteroid belt will characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch by investigating in detail two of the largest protoplanets, Ceres and Vesta, which have remained intact since their formations. In the year prior to its launch, the Dawn Spacecraft underwent a rigorous & comprehensive environmental test program including EMI, Acoustics, Random Vibration and Thermal Vacuum testing. As is often the case, an eroding schedule put a great deal of pressure on the system test program. The project faced this challenge head on and was able to optimize Dawn's environmental test program in such a way that in the end it proved to be extremely valuable in verifying Dawn's system robustness as well as uncovering several key design and workmanship issues. Presented herein is an overview of each system environmental test, as well as some of the key findings and areas of interest from each test. Finally, a special section will be devoted to the unique Ion Propulsion System hot fire test, which was a true end to end test and successfully capped off the system environmental test program proving invaluable towards validating years of hard work and dedication, and ultimately Dawn's worthiness for flight.