3 ms·

Is this actually true for present time satellites? I find it hard to believe that teams designing satellites today would not go for such an 'easy' weight reduct

• londons_explore 3y ago
  well it isn't easy... If your foldable solar panels can't be unfolded in gravity because they'd immediately break, then you can't test that they work.
  • thereisnospork 3y ago
    >you can't test that they work. Sure you can: one needn't test the full exact as-will-be deployed assembly to have confidence a system will work. Systems can be tested in parts or with surrogates. Will the exact system in the exact conditions have been tried? No - but that's not really the goal; the goal of testing is only ever achieving an adequate[0] confidence of success in actual use. [0] A situationally defined term.
  • the_third_wave 3y ago
    Test them submerged in a fluid with (approximately) the same density and the material they're made of and they are "weightless" for all intents and purposes. The fluid will add some other dynamics which are not present in a vacuum so the test will not be entirely accurate but it will show whether the mechanism does what it is supposed to, mostly.
• inamberclad 3y ago
  Plenty of amazing ground systems aren't flown because they can't be tested. Solar panel tests are usually done with a careful support system that takes the load from gravity and allows the panel to be unfolded in an approximately equivalent environment to microgravity.