A new thermal vacuum test chamber built in turkey

In this paper, specifications and capabilities of a newly built thermal vacuum chamber used for the system level thermal vacuum tests is presented. Thanks to the thermoregulation system, it is also possible to perform both subsystem and equipment level thermal vacuum tests. Vacuum condition of space is generated by primary and secondary vacuum pumping systems. Simulation of deep space temperature is achieved by black coated thermal shrouds fed by liquid or gaseous nitrogen. External fluxes which are solar, earth and albedo are simulated by radiative and conductive means in the chamber. All of the operations are managed and controlled by custom built user friendly software. The test data gathered from the sensors mounted on the test item accumulated by a data acquisition system. Two successful thermal vacuum test campaigns performed in the summer of 2012 has shown that it is a reliable test system for the thermal vacuum testing at system, subsystem and equipment level.