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Repair of electronics for long duration spaceflight
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Pettegrew, Richard D. Struk, Peter Easton, John |
| Copyright Year | 2007 |
| Description | To reduce mission risk, long duration spaceflight and exploration activities will require greater degrees of self-sufficiency with regards to repair capability than have ever been employed before in space exploration. The current repair paradigm of replacing Orbital Replacement Units (ORUs) of malfunctioning avionics and electronic hardware will be impractical, since carrying all of the spares that could possibly be needed for a long duration mission would require upmass and volume at unprecedented and unacceptable levels. A strategy of component-level repair for electronics, however, could significantly reduce the mass and volume necessary for spares and enhance mission safety via a generic contingency capability. This approach is already used to varying degrees by the U.S. Navy, where vessels at sea experience some similar constraints such as the need for self sufficiency for moderately long time periods, and restrictions on volume of repair spares and infrastructure. The concept of conducting component-level repairs of electronics in spacecraft requires the development of design guidelines for future avionics (to enable repair), development of diagnostic techniques to allow an astronaut to pinpoint the faulty component aboard a vastly complex vehicle, and development of tools and methodologies for dealing with the physical processes of replacing the component. This physical process includes tasks such as conformal coating removal and replacement, component removal, replacement, and alignment--all in the difficulty of a reduced gravity environment. Further, the gravitational effects on the soldering process must be characterized and accounted for to ensure reliability of the newly repaired components. The Component-Level Electronics-Assembly Repair (CLEAR) project under the NASA Supportability program was established to develop and demonstrate the practicality of this repair approach. CLEAR involves collaborative efforts between NASA s Glenn Research Center, Langley Research Center, Johnson Space Center, the National Center for Space Exploration Research, and the U.S. Navy. The project goals are 1) develop and demonstrate a manually-operated electronics repair capability to be conducted in a spacecraft environment; and 2) develop guidelines for designs of electronics that facilitates component-level repair for future space exploration efforts. This multi-faceted program utilizes a cross-disciplinary approach to examine pre- and post-repair diagnostics, conformal coating removal and replacement, component soldering, and electronics design for supportability. These areas are investigated by a combination of trade studies, ground based testing, reduced gravity aircraft testing, and actual spaceflight testing on the International Space Station (ISS) in multiple experiments. This paper details the efforts of this program, with emphasis on early trade study results, ground-based efforts, and two upcoming ISS experiments. |
| File Size | 1013109 |
| Page Count | 7 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20070022366 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t19k99p8p |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2007-01-08 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Avionics And Aircraft Instrumentation Electronic Equipment Spaceborne Experiments Electronics Maintenance Avionics Long Duration Space Flight System Failures Components International Space Station Cost Effectiveness Onboard Equipment Microgravity Soldering Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports Server (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
