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Gravity Probe B

Testing Einstein's Universe

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR WEEK ENDING 7 AUGUST 1998:

STANFORD HIGHLIGHT
Dr William Bencze, manager of the Gyroscope Suspension System (GSS) group, reports that the digital design team -- Paul Lassa (lead), Scot Sulak, Scott Smader and Joe Kilner -- have fully populated the aft GSS enclosure with flight-prototypical printed circuit boards. These boards have been tested and shown to be functional in isolation, and are now moving to integrated testing. The GSS GFAB forward/aft communications link, fabricated in a flight prototypical form-factor and with flight-prototypical cables is functional and is successfully undergoing long-duration bit error rate testing. Photo: Science Instrument Assembly.

SPACE VEHICLE HIGHLIGHT
Relativity Mission Space Vehicle Electrical Product Development Team members successfully performed confidence testing with the flight Standard Power Regulation Unit (SPRU) using the LMMS-built Solar Array Simulator. Testing concluded on July 29 at Engineered Magnetics, Ranch Dominguez, CA. SPRU dynamic testing successfully simulated on-orbit solar array shading and load variation conditions. The Relativity Mission science experiment is sensitive to supply power variations at space vehicle roll rate. During this testing, frequency responses of the space vehicle power bus voltage and current ripple components at roll frequency were measured to be minimal. Photo: Engineered Magnetics employee Mel Nagamine and LMMS engineer Paul Dulgov testing the flight unit SPRU in Rancho Dominguez, California.

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