We are one step closer to revealing how Earth responds to dangers from the Sun. To make sure it is ready for space, engineers have moved the gold-cloaked Smile spacecraft into the Maxwell Test Chamber at Europe’s largest satellite test facility, ESTEC.
In case you missed it, Smile was unboxed, tested and made whole during the winter. As we enter spring, it enters a new phase – so-called ‘space environment testing’.
Our first space environment test takes place in the special Maxwell Test Chamber. The chamber’s 9 m-high walls, lined with foam spikes, absorb signals and sound, mimicking the void of space. Once its main door is sealed, Maxwell’s metal walls form a ‘Faraday Cage’, screening out all external electromagnetic signals.
Like most spacecraft, Smile is very sensitive. It is designed to pick up very weak magnetic field signals, whilst transmitting a lot of data down to Earth with high-power antennas. Engineers are checking that the spacecraft works well when all its electronics are switched on, making sure that there is no ‘crosstalk’ between them.
Another important part of the Maxwell Chamber tests is to make sure that Smile is safe to launch inside the Vega-C rocket that will take it to space. The rocket and its associated ground systems also carry lots of electronics; we need to be sure that they are not disturbed by Smile, and vice versa.
It will take the team some time to fully analyse the results, but a first look suggests that Smile will pass these tests with flying colours.
Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
[ALT-text: A group of 22 engineers in front of ESA’s Smile spacecraft, in the Maxwell Test Chamber at ESA/ESTEC.]
[Image description: In the foreground of the image, 22 engineers wearing cleanroom suits, hair and beard nets, and shoe coverings smile at the camera. They are posing in front of a shiny gold spacecraft, in the centre of the image. The walls of the room in which they stand are lined with blue foam spikes that point away from the wall, towards the spacecraft.]