It’s remarkable how fast a quarter happens. Time flies when you’re having fun, or an engineer putting in back to back hours trying to balance your classes, work, internship, and any extra-curricular activities. For the Spacecraft Thermal System mechanical team, this quarter was a productive one.

Our goal this quarter was to complete construction of our thermal testing chamber. The goal of the project is to develop a low-cost electrochromically controlled film that can variably absorb or reflect radiation for a Satellite at Low-Earth orbit. While the chemical team handled the task of creating the film, the mechanical team is charged with constructing a reliable test mechanism.
Rolling off the work done last quarter, we received all the parts we ordered and began constructing our test chamber. The chamber is simply a clear, sealed box containing a test stand to hold the variable-emissivity device under a heat source. The challenge is reducing the sources of heat transfer, like convection and conduction, that help simulate testing the performance of the device in space. First the structure was assembled. Acrylic walls were laser cut and put together using acrylic weld. Specific holes were put in to allow electrical wires to enter the chamber and control the electrochromic device. The inside was insulated and sealed with rubber sealant to prevent leaking. To finish off the enclosure, a mini stand was 3D printed to hold the device in the center, and a heat sink made of copper and aluminum was put together from last year to close the top of the chamber.

Unfortunately, the team ran into a problem involving the DAQ. The wrong DAQ was purchased from the previous quarter, and a new one is required. A new device is being ordered; however, this prevents any data from being acquired until next quarter. To try and make up for lost time, the team focused on making sure the chamber was properly sealed and insulated. In addition to that, the electric components were tested in the enclosure and confirmed operational.

Next quarter, the team is planning on taking multiple tests of the sample device the chemical team has produced then comparing them to results of an actual industry version of the device acquired by Professor Rafique. The goal of next quarter is to juxtapose the quality of our student-made film to the expensive, professionally-made film, and hopefully our device matches up well to it.