Research on Electrodynamic Tether Effects (RETE) Experiment Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE)

摘要

The hardware, software, and test procedures of the Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) to simulate the interfaces of the Orbiter with the tethered satellite and to perform functional tests and data display are described. The main requirement is the possibility to utilize the EGSE, with slight changes, during the subsequent phases of experiment integration and during the Shuttle mission. The EGSE is needed to integrate three experiment subsystems: an ac package to measure three orthogonal components of the electrical field (from 170 Hz to 12 MHz) and 2 orthogonal components of the magnetic field (from 170 Hz to 450 KHz); a dc package which performs Langmuir probe measurements to determine the local plasma characteristic, including the local plasma potential; and a data processing unit for data acquisition and control of interfaces with satellite telemetry.