Vibration and acoustic testing of spacecraft

摘要

Spacecraft are subjected to a variety of dynamics environments, which may include: quasi-static, vibration and acoustic loads at launch; pyrotechnic shocks generated by separation mechanisms; on-orbit jitter; and sometimes, planetary landing loads. There is a trend in the aerospace industry to rely more on structural analyses and less on testing to simulate these environments, because dynamics testing of spacecraft is time consuming, risky and expensive. However, as Dr. Edward Stone, the previous director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) told some students in the wake of the failures of two Mars spacecraft in 1999, "The key thing is to test. Build it, test it and test it some more. Because once it's gone, it's too late." Recognizing the essential role of testing, NASA is devoting considerable resources to the development of innovative and more efficient approaches to dynamics testing.