Mars Pathfinder Status
As we go to press in this Issue 6 of The Martian Chronicle, the
fully assembled Mars Pathfinder
flight system has just successfully completed an "acoustic vibration"
test which uses sound waves to simulate the launch environment. It is also
being readied for what is called a thermal/vacuum test: we put the flight
system into a large 25 foot chamber and pump the air out of the chamber
to simulate the vacuum of space in cruise, while shining infrared lights
on the flight system to simulate the intense sunlight in interplanetary
space.
Mars Pathfinder being tested in JPL's 25 foot (7.6-m) vacuum chamber
After this test, we put the flight system into its surface configuration
with the lander open and the rover off the lander, communicating with the
lander through its radio link. We again pump down the chamber, but this
time to Mars surface atmospheric pressure and cycle the flight system through
hot and cold temperatures to simulate Mars day and night cycles.
Before, during and after each of these cruise and surface environmental
tests, we do system electrical testing of the flight system to ensure the
proper operation of all the systems. After all of this, in August, we partially
disassemble the flight system to ship it to the Eastern Test Range in Florida
for launch preparations.
All is going well for launch on December 2, 1996!
--Tony Spear