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Aerospace Engineering

Aerospace Engineering

Vacuum

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Thermal Vacuum Chamber Operation And Testing, Leila Tebyani Jun 2013

Thermal Vacuum Chamber Operation And Testing, Leila Tebyani

Aerospace Engineering

The purpose of this senior project is to understand the capabilities of the thermal vacuum chamber in the Space Environments Laboratory at California Polytechnic State University and compare the performance to thermal vacuum chambers used in the aerospace industry. The lowest temperature attained inside the chamber during an experiment at ambient pressure was -33°C. The lowest pressure reached by the vacuum chamber at the time of this project was 5e-5 Torr. This report also yields recommendations for integrating a demonstation of the effects of thermal variation in space on spacecraft components for the class AERO 471. A lit LED can …


Synergistic Effects Of Atomic Oxygen And Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure On Various Spacecraft Materials, Adrian L. Doan Jun 2013

Synergistic Effects Of Atomic Oxygen And Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure On Various Spacecraft Materials, Adrian L. Doan

Aerospace Engineering

The Aerospace Engineering Space Environments Laboratory at California Polytechnic State University features a ground-based system capable of generating atomic oxygen (AO) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation environments, constructed by Max Glicklin in 2012. Experiments using three different spacecraft materials were conducted to test the individual and synergistic effects of these naturally occurring phenomena. Kapton HN functioned as a means to provide initial validation of the presence of AO and VUV radiation. Kapton HN also functioned as a test-fluence standard during testing of two other materials. These materials included aluminized beta cloth, with the non-aluminized side being tested, and Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) …


Degradation Of Solar Cells Due To Arcing In A Vacuum Chamber, Christina Gonzalez Jun 2012

Degradation Of Solar Cells Due To Arcing In A Vacuum Chamber, Christina Gonzalez

Aerospace Engineering

This report summarizes the senior project entitled Degradation of Solar Cells Due to Arcing in a Vacuum Chamber. The goal of this experiment was to show electrical and physical degradation of silicon solar cells in a vacuum chamber. The cells were characterized and then placed in a vacuum chamber. Under vacuum, a potential was created to induce arcing to the cell. The cell was characterized again after arcing to determine the change in efficiency. This document details the process for designing the circuit to create the arcing, and the different setups used to degrade the cells electrically and physically. It …