NEXT Single String Integration Tests in Support of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission

Thomas, Robert ; Aulisio, Michael ; Badger, Andrew R ; Heistand, Christopher C ; Thompson, Derik S ; Liang, Raymond ; John, Jeremy ; Goodfellow, Keith ; Bontempo, James

关键词: ALGORITHMS;    DATA SYSTEMS;    DOUBLE ASTEROID REDIRECTION TEST (DART) MISSION;    FAULT DETECTION;    ION PROPULSION;    NASA EVOLUTIONARY XENON THRUSTER (NEXT);    PERFORMANCE TESTS;    SYSTEMS ANALYSIS;    SYSTEMS INTEGRATION;    THRUST VECTOR CONTROL;   

RP-ID  :  GRC-E-DAA-TN71884

学科分类：航空航天科学

美国|英语

来源: NASA Technical Reports Server

【 摘 要 】

A system integration test has been performed utilizing a prototype model NEXT ion thruster, an engineering model power processing unit, and a laboratory model command and data handling system. The objectives of the test were to: a) verify that the integrated system meets performance requirements, b) demonstrate that the integrated system is functional across the anticipated thermal, power processor, and Xe propellant ranges for the DART mission, and to c) evaluate fault detection and operation of the command and data handling system. Measurements made during this test included: thruster performance, PPU input voltages, PPU electrical and thermal telemetry, software states, and fault flags. Additionally, a far-field electrostatic probe diagnostic was used to infer relative changes in the thrust vector across the various propellant flow splits. This manuscript presents the results of these tests, which include integrated ion propulsion system demonstrations of performance, details on the execution of DART flight algorithms, and software fault handling.