Sapphire Testing

S A P P H I R E
.S.T.A.N.F.O.R.D. .A.U.D.I.O. .P.H.O.N.I.C. .P .H.O.T.O.G.R.A.P.H.I.C. .I.N.F.R.A. .R.E.D. .E.X.P.E.R.I.M.E.N.T.

T E S T I N G I N F O R M A T I O N

We subject SAPPHIRE to these tests to verify our models, and simply to see if what we build works!

.OPERATIONAL TESTING.

This is the debugging stage for our hardware and software. Here are some interesting hardware tests that we put our satellite (or part of it ) through :
~ Thermal Battery Test ~ A test of the thermal battery to characterize their operations	~ Solar Panel Flash Test ~ This is how we debug our solar cell arrays for defective cells and to find manufacturing defects.	~ Separation System Test ~ A test of our separation system to verify our circuit designs.

.ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING.

Tests of this category involves subjecting the satellite to the conditions that it will encounter during its missions. This includes the launch environment and the space environment.
~ Thermal Cycle ~ Functional test of SAPPHIRE over a range of temperatures.	~ Vacuum ~ A functional test of SAPPHIRE in a vacuum environment.	~ Vibration ~ A simulated launch to test the satellite's structural integrity	~ Thermal Vacuum ~ A full operational test of the satellite in simulated space environment.

.WHAT SAPPHIRE HAS SUCCESSFULLY PASSED.

In rough chronological order :

Thermal Cycles, which took place from November 1995-January 1996 at Space Systems Loral in Palo Alto, CA.

Operational Vacuum, in November/December 1995, courtesy Prof Cappelli on Stanford campus.

Vibration, in March 1996 at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale.

Separation System Firing Test, in August 1996 at Stanford campus.

Thermal Vacuum, in December 1997 at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, CA.

See our test "reports" ( actually they are simply copies of email messages sent to the project team ) :
[ Thermal Cycles ] [ Operational Vacuum ] [ Vibration ] [ Thermal Battery Firing ] [ Thermal Vacuum ]