A low cost imaging displacement technique suitable for use in thermal vacuum testing was built and tested during thermal vacuum testing of the space infrared telescope facility (SIRTF, later renamed Spitzer infrared telescope facility). The problem was to measure the relative displacement of different portions of the spacecraft due to thermal expansion or contraction. Standard displacement measuring instrumentation could not be used because of the widely varying temperatures on the spacecraft and for fear of invalidating the thermal vacuum testing. The imaging system was conceived, designed, purchased, and installed in approximately 2 months at very low cost. The system performed beyond expectations proving that sub millimeter displacements could be measured from over 2 meters away. Using commercial optics it was possible to make displacement measurements down to 10 (mu)m. An automated image processing tool was used to process the data, which not only speeded up data reduction, but showed that velocities and accelerations could also be measured. Details of the design and capabilities of the system are discussed along with the results of the test on the observatory. Several images from the actual test are presented.


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    Title :

    A low cost imaging displacement measurement system for spacecraft thermal vacuum testing


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    44th AIAA Aerospace Meeting and Exhibit ; 2006 ; Reno, NV, United States


    Publication date :

    2006-01-09


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





    AIAA 2006-1322 A Low Cost Imaging Displacement Measurement System for Spacecraft Thermal Vacuum Testing

    Dempsey, B. P. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2006


    Thermal vacuum testing for spacecraft

    Anderson, D. E. | NTRS | 1969


    Spacecraft thermal vacuum testing

    Elam, B. F. / Lancaster, L. D. | NTRS | 1972