Environmental Testing : Thermal Vacuum

Woodward MPC’s thermal vacuum equipment for space applications features a Tenney thermal vacuum chamber (6 ft long x 6 ft diameter) that attains a vacuum of 1E-07 Torr. A second thermal vacuum chamber (3 ft long x 3 ft diameter) can attain a vacuum of 1E-06 Torr. These chambers can be back-filled with Argon or other gases to simulate Martian atmospheres. Mechanical feed throughs allow test items such as solar array drives to be loaded externally with large inertial loads. Thermal cycling at room-ambient pressure can be performed with a dry Nitrogen purge in order to eliminate condensation.