WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR WEEK ENDING 16 January 1998:
STANFORD HIGHLIGHT
Mark Sullivan and Matthew Bye have completed 16 flight
thermal isolators for
the Science Mission telescope
detector electronics (4 needed per telescope).
Using titanium-gold coatings on kapton, with an overcoat
deposited as liquid
polyimid, they have achieved robust
reproducible isolators, with very good
integrity under
mechanical manipulation and abrasion.
SPACE VEHICLE HIGHLIGHT
Engineering strength testing of the Probe Composite Neck Tube
(CNT) with
the Belleville Preload System (BPS) was successfully
completed on 12
January. Axial and lateral loads were applied
at levels up to 120% of
the expected flight loads. Strains in
the CNT were within 10% of their
predicted levels. This test is
a major milestone in BPS development.
It demonstrated the CNT's
ability to carry ascent loads through the BPS,
and the test
validates analytical predictions of load distribution
within
the CNT caused by the BPS.