Questions tagged [testing]
Questions about the procedure of using a piece of equipment to find imperfections or problems.
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Need advice to set up reaction wheel cluster in lab
I am thinking of having a reaction wheel cluster set up in a physics lab for educational purposes. I would like to find out what the available options to me are. Here are some more specifics:
I see ...
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How does NASA have permission to test a nuclear engine?
In this article on nasa.gov (https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-darpa-will-test-nuclear-engine-for-future-mars-missions) it mentions that NASA will test a nuclear rocket engine for future crewed ...
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What is SpaceX doing differently with Starship to avoid it exploding like the N1?
Both Starship and the N1 have more than 30 rocket engines. The N1 exploded after having a chain reaction from a failed engine.
N1 rocket engines:
Starship’s rocket engines:
Unlike the N1, SpaceX has ...
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What is the difference between a spin up test and a spin prime test?
What is the difference between a spin up test and a spin prime test? And if there is no difference, why not just use the first of those two terms, it being more descriptive?
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How to test vaccum engines at sea level? [duplicate]
SpaceX is testing its Raptor vacuum engine (RVAC) at sea level (without any facility that can simulate near vacuum conditions). How can they do this without flow separation happening?
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What is a rocket engine spin up test?
Recently I came across internet about SpaceX's Booster 7 explosion in a ball of fire during an engine spin up test. I searched Google about rocket engine spin up test but I got no hit. What is a ...
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NASA GMAT Hardware in the Loop testing
We are currently evaluating various Mission Analysis & Simulation tools, one of which is NASA's GMAT (2020). One of our requirements is for the tool to support HITL testing. However, i am unable ...
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What safety protocols did this Pythom Space rocket crew ignore?
The video below of Pythom Space's first rocket test has raised a few eyebrows
The video prompted hundreds of replies on Twitter, including some from rather horrified rocket scientists. "We knew ...
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Why was SERT-1 put in a suborbital trajectory (4000 km apogee) while SERT-2 (1970-009A) was put in a 1000 km circular polar orbit?
Wikipedia's SERT-1 says
SERT-1 (Space Electric Rocket Test) was a NASA probe used to test electrostatic ion thruster design and was built by NASA's Lewis Research Center (now NASA Glenn). SERT-1 was ...
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What does the ATOLL programming language look like?
During the Apollo program, checkout tests of launch vehicle and spacecraft systems were gradually being automated, moving away from the manual processes during the early years of the space program to (...
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How do you test-fire vacuum engines in a vacuum chamber? Why doesn't it fill up almost instantly from the exhaust and spray (deluge) water?
How are vacuum optimized engines tested without disintegrating them? is an excellent question as it's attracted quite a number of informative and diverse answers.
@Uwe's answer informs us that there ...
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How unusual is it to test vacuum engines at sea level?
How are vacuum optimized engines tested without disintegrating them? is an excellent question as it's attracted quite a number of informative and diverse answers.
@Uwe's answer informs us that there ...
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Resources where one can find RD-171MV engine technical specifications? (e.g.TWR, Expansion Ratio, Isp, Thrust, Chamber pressure, O:F ratio)
I'm trying to get a hold of various technical specifications for the RD-171MV engine
A modification of RD-171M being developed for the Irtysh rocket. Unlike RD-171M it's completely made from Russian ...
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Why wasn't the high-speed rotation regime for Ingenuity tested on Earth?
On the NASA website, it says that the propeller on Ingenuity will need to spin faster than what has been done before during all of the previous tests to accommodate for the rarefied atmosphere during ...
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Post-flight analysis of SpaceX Starship 20 heat shield tiles
If Starship 20 will not be recovered, how will SpaceX evaluate the performance of the heat tiles? If a couple of heat tiles fall off and the Starship bursts into flames, how can SpaceX figure out ...
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Was the Isp = 11,000 seconds Neumann Drive tested on the ISS? Did it work? How well did it perform?
In 2018 answers were posted to
What is Australia's Bartolomeo platform? When does it arrive at the ISS; when and where will it be attached?
Will the Neumann drive start testing aboard the ISS ...
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What is actually happening in this full mission rehearsal of CAPSTONE's propulsion hardware?
NASA Ames's feature CAPSTONE’s CubeSat Prepares for Lunar Flight says
CAPSTONE will use a hydrazine-fueled propulsion system during most of its three- to four- month journey to the Moon. This line of ...
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Why did tests in space of refrigerators of the type we use at home fail? How many were tried?
Phys.org's To give astronauts better food, engineers test a fridge prototype in microgravity says:
Astronauts have been going to space since 1961, but they still don't have a refrigerator to use for ...
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How many of these six military "orbital threat" techniques have been demonstrated in a (more or less) publicly recognized way?
If you are having a good day then under no circumstances should you read the US Defense Intelligence Agency's Challenges to Security in Space1 (Information cutoff date, January 2019) linked in Axios' ...
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How is the Max-Q of a spacecraft determined?
Maximum aerodynamic pressure of a spacecraft is the maximum force it's hull can withstand during flight. How is the Max-Q of a spacecraft determined?
Other related ( optional) queries are:
If Max-Q ...
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Was this the only time that helium balloon was used to support deployed spacecraft appendages during testing on the ground in Earth gravity?
What is this balloon for in this clean room and what is the proper name for the "stand" that is holding the satellite? shows the image below, and a comment below @OrganicMarble's answer ...
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Was the SK-1 spacesuit tested in flight prior to Gagarin's historic mission?
April 12 is the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight, Vostok 1. As no human had previously been to space, it was also a test of the SK-1 spacesuit that cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin wore.
This ...
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Static Fire Tests: How is the rocket prevented from flying?
In rockets like Starship, if 35 Raptors are firing at same time, then in a full-duration static fire test there would be enormous loads being exerted from 35 raptors, on the clamps holding the rocket. ...
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Resources/guidelines on space electronics compliance?
Space hardware suffers from various effects such as radiation, heating, vibration, off-gassing, material degradation and so on. While these effects are mentioned in most space engineering books, I am ...
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Ingenuity Test Stand and Stroboscopic lightning
The paper on Ingenuity talks about the test setup of ingenuity
Associated metrology in the form of a force/torque sensor, a Vicon motion tracking system, stroboscopic lighting, a thermal camera, and ...
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What "advanced computer capable of faster processing and data compression" is the S. S. Katherine Johnson carrying? (Cygnus NG-15)
CBS News; says:
The primary goal of the Cygnus mission is to deliver science equipment and supplies for on-going research utilizing the microgravity environment aboard the space station.
One ...
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Was Dart antenna tested using a DSN antenna located in Australia?
So recently a tweet by a bot which tracks communications by the Deep Space Network stated that:
DSS 43 receiving data from Double Asteroid Redirection Test at 312.5kb/s.
IN LOCK IN LOCK 1 TURBO
11:11 ...
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Why wasn't there a 2nd attempt for the Viking-DS (VDS) test payload before the real Viking 1 and 2 were launched?
Per Gunter's Space Page for Viking-DS (VDS):
Viking-DS or VDS (Viking Dynamic Simulator) was a vehicle evaluation payload, which was to represent the dynamic properties of the Viking spacecraft.
It ...
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What specific device failed, causing engine #4 in the Core Stage Green Run to report a Failure Identification?
(See this Q&A for context if needed: What is a "Major Component Failure" referred to in news reports about the unsuccessful Space Launch System core stage test firing?)
In the post-test ...
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Any large scale rocket static fires, like SpaceX's 3 in one day?
SpaceX on Jan 13, 2021 did three static fires in one day.
Elon Musk tweeted:
All three static fires completed & no RUDs!
And that was in response to this tweet of his own:
Today at SpaceX is ...
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Longest static fire?
What is the longest duration for a static fire of a complete rocket stage?
Initially I wanted to ask this for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy
I found a 10 second static fire for Falcon Heavy - https://...
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Is the acoustic horn at Stennis Space Center still there? Is it used?
Stennis Space Center had a giant horn installed in the times when they were testing the Saturn program engines. The purpose was to see what the acoustic conditions were like before testing and thus ...
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How to experimentally determine the degree of atomization of the propellants mixing in a fuel injector?
When validating a fuel injector design on a test stand using liquid water to simulate a liquid-liquid fuel injector(the one i'm working with currently is a pintle design but I suppose one could ...
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How much does annual maintenance of a vibration table cost?
The company I work for produces hardware for spacecraft and we routinely have to test that hardware to ensure it meets the stringent requirements for random vibration environments on the missions they ...
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Could the Space Shuttles other than Enterprise easily do drop tests from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft?
This question was inspired by comments on this answer.
The Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise was only used for approach and landing tests, for which it was flown on a carrier 747, until it was ...
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Did Corporal or other rockets launched from White Sands land in Mexico? If so, how often?
At 10:39 in the video Explorer One is the following:
Pickering had once half-joked that JPL could do anything, but building the corporal proved a humbling ...
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Could Mars Rovers be lighter or faster if they didn't have to be tested on Earth?
Watching this video of Perserverance being tested on Earth, it occurred to me that requiring it to stand, drive, climb, etc. under 1g is, in some sense, overkill. Could this (or other) rovers be made ...
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At what altitude(s) were the Viking BLDT rockets fired?
I'm trying to understand the details of the 1972 Viking BLDT test missions (in earth's atmosphere). I found this diagram in a book and the general description that the (four) BLDT (balloon drop) tests ...
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Why was ISRO's CARE reentry demonstration at 5300 m/s so slow?
This community wiki answer to What are some details of ISRO's Gaganyaan Mission currently says:
Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE)
was launched on 18 December 2014 at 04:00 UTC. ...
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Was LM1 of Apollo 5 equipped with additional sensors and telemetry for the umanned "fire in the hole" test?
The first unmanned test of the Lunar Module was done in mission Apollo 5 LM 1. The separation of the ascent stage from the descent stage was done during flight. Did they install additional sensors and ...
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How do engineers know new engines will work nominally once they reach space?
Obviously you test fire a new engines as many times as you see fit on earth, but how do you know the effect the vacuum of space (or really the lack of gravity/air) will have on a new engine?
Is it ...
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What is it about parachutes that makes people always want to "re-invent the wheel"?
For technology that involves complex engineering issues, standardization and specialization is extremely helpful. If I want to design a complex ASIC IC I don't design it from scratch, I just drag-and-...
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Why was the SpaceX abort test not initiated by real booster failure?
Today (2020-01-19) SpaceX had a successful flight abort test. As far as I can understand, at a specific altitude, Crew Dragon fired its engines and escaped from the rocket.
This test looks like a ...
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How high will the Crew Dragon capsule get during the In-Flight Abort?
During the In-Flight Abort test (IFA), the Crew Dragon capsule will pull away from the Falcon 9 rocket when the rocket is undergoing maximum aerodynamic stress. At that time, it will still be going ...
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Why did the SpaceX Starship MK1 prototype pop?
During a pressurization test on November 20th, 2019, SpaceX's Starship MK1 prototype "popped" at the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica TX.
Do we know what caused this apparent failure? Some claim that ...
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What's the most optimal method of motor attachment for Horizontal Static Fire Tests?
I'm a college student new to rocketry, and am working on the horizontal test structure for a static fire test of our motors.
The max thrust for the booster motor is about 6000 pounds, and the ...
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Were the landing gear doors closed during the Approach and Landing Tests?
This photo from an answer on the Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests shows the front attachment between the Enterprise orbiter and the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The support strut reaches the ...
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Have nuclear explosions in space produced any debris that was subsequently tracked, or did all of them completely self-vaporize?
This answer to Where in the solar system could a nuke be tested without anybody noticing? has got me wondering if nuclear explosions (nuclear tests) in space above Earth ever produced any chunks of ...
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How does the Saturn V Dynamic Test Stand work?
This photo instantly provokes a ton of questions in me:
It shows the Dynamic Test Stand at Marshall SFC with the Enterprise, which was a Space Shuttle test vehicle, suspended for vibration testing. ...
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How was sky crane (used on Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity) tested?
This is sky crane:
Mars has 1/3 of Earth's gravity, so how was sky crane tested on Earth? Did they even test it at all? Did they repeatedly do the math, and make sure everything works so that they ...
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