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By Chun-Ting Jake Cheng a Thesis Submitted in Conformity with The ASSEMBLY,INTEGRATION, AND TEST OF THE INSTRUMENT FOR SPACE ASTRONOMY USED ON-BOARD THE BRIGHT TARGET EXPLORER CONSTELLATION OF NANOSATELLITES by Chun-Ting Jake Cheng A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of Aerospace University of Toronto Copyright c 2012 by Chun-Ting Jake Cheng Abstract Assembly, Integration, and Test of the Instrument for Space Astronomy used on-board the Bright Target Explorer Constellation of Nanosatellites Chun-Ting Jake Cheng Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of Aerospace University of Toronto 2012 The BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE) constellation is revolutionary in the sense that the same scientific objectives can be achieved smaller (cm3 versus m3) and lighter (< 10kg versus 1; 000kg). It is a space astronomy mission, observing the variations in the apparent brightness of stars. The work presented herein focuses on the assembly, integration and test of the instrument used on-board six nanosatellites that form the constellation. The instrument is composed of an optical telescope equipped with a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) imager and a dedicated computer. This thesis provides a particular in-depth look into the inner workings of CCD. Methods used to characterize the instrument CCD in terms of its bias level stability, gain factor determination, saturation, dark current and readout noise level evaluation are provided. These methodologies are not limited to CCDs and they provide the basis for anyone who wishes to characterize any type of imager for scientic applications. ii Dedication To my dear parents, especially my Mother, who had taken on such a tough role to provide care, guid- ance and encouragement throughout my childhood and teenage years and continues to be my most loyal supporter. Everything good I achieve in this life will be because of your nourishment. To my friends. Thank you all for putting up with my complaints while providing me with your un- biased views. I owe it to you guys for putting some sanity back in my life during stressful times. Admittedly it can be tough to be my friend and you guys deserve my greatest gratitude for being there and unknowingly living up to my high standard for being good friends. You guys deserve all the best in your future and I have no doubt you will attain it. To Science. It is one of my greatest desires that the BRITE mission will be a spectacular success in the scientific community. Moreover, my greed compels me to wish some of the greatest mysteries in nature would be resolved through BRITE. This way I could be content in life knowing that I had played a role in contributing to a major scientific revolution. iii Acknowledgements First deserving of acknowledgement is Dr. Robert Zee for offering me the opportunity to work on a real mission and putting it to space, this probably grants me the bragging rights amongst my friends for the foreseeable future. Particularly deserving of note is his support to grant me the chance to take on spacecraft assembly, a spacecraft thermal vacuum test campaign and the Small Satellite conference eye-opening experiences. Second, to BRITE mission manager Cordell Grant, who never ceases to impress me with how he is able to manage multiple missions of such high complexity. Furthermore, I would like to credit his patience for putting up with a lot of my recurring questions which in many occasions serve as real life examples to counter proof the phrase ”there is no stupid question”. Third, to BRITE instrument electronics designer Mihail Barbu, who deserves no less credit than any other for the amount of guidance he provided throughout. Thank you very much for explaining and helping me navigate through the vast realm of electronics. Too many times it almost seemed that your mere presence would influence the electronics and cause it to fix itself (and there are times when you gently reminded me to plug it in or turn it on). But lets call it even for getting you out of the dark room. Fourth, to fellow student Jakob Lifshits, who proves to be an invaluable asset to the lab, whose de- ductive reasoning permeates through the way he converses and shows wisdom beyond his age. Fifth, to the overall lab guru Daniel Kekez, who had consistently shown me immense patience and complete willingness to explain things down to the very detail. Thank you very much for your assistance throughout my time in the group. Sixth, to Dr. Stefan Mochnacki, who provided expert guidance and input on the various aspects of instrument testing. Your guided me, a complete amateur on the topic of charge coupled device, to carry out the various testing processes and provided me with sanity checks on the ideas and procedures I came up with. Thank you also for accompanying me with the outdoor field tests and lending my your vast knowledge in astronomy. Seventh, to Dr. Rainer Kuschnig for his collaboration, guidance, and efforts during the instrument focusing process. Your valuable inputs on the star fields to image are also much appreciated. Eighth, to my second thesis reviewer, Dr. Slavek Rucinski, for his time, attention and valuable feed- back. Most importantly you are the father of BRITE constellation. This thesis, let alone the BRITE iv mission, would never have existed without your successful proposal to adopt a nanosatellite platform to perform the specific science! Last, but not least, to all the staff and students, some of you who I wish I had more chance to interact with, but I am sure I have required help from every single one of you at some point during my time at the lab. You guys have enhanced my understanding of big words such as dedication, diligence and professionalism. I wish all of you the best in your future endeavors. v Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 History of Space Telescopes and the State of the Field . 1 1.1.1 Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 . 2 1.1.2 International Ultraviolet Explorer . 2 1.1.3 High Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite . 3 1.1.4 Hubble Space Telescope and Charge Coupled Devices Technology . 3 1.1.5 Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars . 4 1.1.6 Swift . 5 1.1.7 Convection Rotation et Transits Planetaires´ . 6 1.2 Thesis Objectives, Contributions, and Significance . 6 2 The CanX-3 BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE) 8 2.1 The Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB) . 8 2.1.1 Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem . 9 2.1.2 Power Subsystem . 10 2.1.3 On-Board Computer Subsystem . 12 2.1.4 Communication Subsystem . 12 2.2 Science Objective . 13 2.3 Mission Operation . 15 2.4 Formation of the BRITE Constellation . 17 3 BRITE Instrument 18 3.1 Detector Selection - From CMOS to CCD . 19 3.2 Charge Coupled Devices (CCD) . 19 3.3 Fundamentals of CCD Operation . 20 3.3.1 Charge Generation . 21 3.3.2 Charge Storage . 21 3.3.3 Charge Transfer . 22 vi 3.3.4 Charge Readout . 23 3.4 A Two Board CCD Driver Design . 23 3.4.1 CCD Header Board . 24 3.4.2 Instrument On-Board Computer (IOBC) . 25 3.4.3 Analog Front End (AFE) Chain . 27 3.5 Instrument Telescope Assembly . 28 3.5.1 Stray Light Suppression . 28 3.5.2 Instrument Optics and Point Spread Function . 29 3.5.3 Header Tray and Focusing Mechanism . 30 4 Instrument Hardware Qualification Tests 32 4.1 Environmental Tests . 33 4.2 Hardware Model Definitions . 34 4.3 Qualification Testing . 35 4.3.1 Type I Inspection, Rework and Delta Inspection . 35 4.3.2 IOBC Unit Level Functional Test . 35 4.3.3 Instrument Room Temperature LFFT . 41 4.3.4 Payload Instrument Scientific Acceptance Test (PISAT) . 45 4.3.5 Type II Inspection, Rework and Delta Inspection . 45 4.3.6 Thermal Shock, Post Thermal Shock Inspection and LFFT . 45 4.3.7 Thermal Vacuum Test . 46 4.3.8 Vibration Testing . 49 5 BRITE Payload Instrument Scientific Acceptance Test 50 5.1 Test Overview . 50 5.2 Test Setup . 51 5.3 Data Types . 52 5.4 Bias Level and Stability Test . 53 5.4.1 Requirements . 54 5.4.2 Data Gathering . 55 5.4.3 Data Analysis and Results for UniBRITE Instrument . 55 5.5 Gain Determination . 62 5.6 Gain Measurement . 63 5.6.1 Requirement . 64 5.6.2 Data Gathering . 64 5.6.3 Data Analysis and Results . 65 5.7 Saturation Test . 72 vii 5.7.1 Requirement . 72 5.7.2 Data Gathering . 72 5.7.3 Data Analysis & Results . 72 5.8 Dark Current Test . 73 5.8.1 Requirements . 73 5.8.2 Data Gathering . 73 5.8.3 Data Analysis and Results . 74 5.9 Readout Noise Level Test . 79 5.9.1 Requirement . 80 5.9.2 Data Gathering . 80 5.9.3 Data Analysis and Results . 80 6 Instrument Integration 81 6.1 Creating an Artificial Star Field . 81 6.1.1 Collimator Setup . 82 6.2 Instrument Focusing . 83 7 Field Testing with Real Stars 88 7.1 Paramount Tracking Platform . 88 7.2 Mobile Instrument Assembly . 89 7.3 Star Observation Setup . 90 7.4 Observing the Stars . 91 7.5 Image Processing . 91 7.6 Differential Photometry . ..
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