Music
We're in the high bay of building 29 and we have the
vibration facility which is going to help us test the forces
that we are going to see on the telescope during our launch
environment.
OTIS is the combination of the Optical Telescope Element
and the Integrated Science Instrument Module
which basically amounts to the science portion
of the JWST Mission.
The telescope is currently being integrated
in our SSDIF facility
and we will be moving from the SSDIF facility into our
vibration and acoustic facilities for testing.
The mechanical engineering team is preparing by simulating some
of the activities that we will be doing using a mock up of the
telescope and by practicing these steps the mechanical
engineering team is making sure that OTIS is protected from
particles and that its safeguarded during the test.
So the way we're moving OTIS is by surrounding the telescope and
OTIS with a tent which is a four story structure, I-beam
structure that helps protect OTIS when it's outside the
cleanroom like when we're doing the tests out here
and basically works like a shower cap,
it protects the hair from getting wet.
Here it protects OTIS from particles and the environment.
Goddard needs to conduct the sine vibration and acoustic
tests for OTIS primarily so we can demonstrate and verify that
our mechanical design will withstand the loads that it will
see when it launched on the Ariane 5 Rocket.
We do these pre-tests as a strength qualifier, workmanship,
make sure everything has been put together, an our analysis is
right and we don't send anything to launch that will potentially
break during launch.
Engineers talking
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