On the 18th of June we finished thermal vacuum cycling of the BiSon Sunsensors that was agreed upon in frame of the running ESA GSTP program. At the VaB thermal cycling facility has 9 slots for mounting Sunsensors, and all Lens R&D Sunsensors have the same mounting interface, we decided to test a MAUS [...]
A trio of Lens R&D Sunsensors is changing temperature under vacuum at a speed that surpasses that of a real satellite. The plot shows the temperature profiles achieved for the BiSon Sunsensors in frame of the ongoing ESA life testing qualification and the MAUS Cubesat Sunsensor. Contrary to common high speed cycling (which is generally [...]
Last week the new custom developed photodiodes that are used in the Lens R&D fine Sunsensors (BiSon and MAUS) have been tested at the Delft Reactor Institute (DRI) to levels beyond what would be required for any known mission. Given the high radiation levels to be tested for the devices it had become impractical to [...]