RKS and SRC Energy: Orbital stand for testing airborne satellite equipment in outer space

2023: Development of orbital stand concept

Specialists of the Russian Space Systems Holding (RKS, part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) together with scientists from the Energia rocket and space corporation (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) have completed the development of a concept of an orbital stand for testing airborne satellite equipment in outer space. Testing the equipment in orbit will significantly increase its reliability and reduce the production time of satellites. This was reported to the RKS on March 29, 2023.

The main problem in testing equipment is the difficulty in imitating the conditions of real space on Earth. Despite the development of the test base, it is almost impossible to combine all real space factors that simultaneously affect the equipment in orbit in one stand. In addition, earlier, for each series of satellites, which had single technical characteristics, it was necessary to create a separate test platform, which was often ultra-expensive and unprofitable.

The test platform - the development of the RKS is planned to be installed on board the Russian orbital station ROS. The stand consists of two parts: an external unit installed in outer space and an internal unit located inside the sealed compartment. While on board the station, the equipment will work in real gravitational and magnetic fields of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon, fields of ground and space communication and navigation systems, interact with real satellites in all communication ranges. It is assumed that after space tests, specialists on Earth will conduct a comparative analysis of the test results with the initial calculations for possible adjustments.

"Russian space systems" introduce a special industry ideology into life - the construction of satellites on the basis of unified modular solutions, when the spacecraft is assembled from universal and serial units of equipment as a "lego" designer. The construction of unified orbital test benches is the direction of work for the Russian space industry. This allows us to approach the issue of testing on-board equipment in real space with the same universalism. To do this, you do not need to create test platforms in orbit. It is enough to build one reliable one, which is suitable for testing any space equipment created from identical "cubes."

Bench tests in outer space will be an addition to ground tests, which will reduce the risk of obtaining a negative result during subsequent flight tests of spacecraft and minimize the amount of improvements to the equipment before launching into mass production.