Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT)

The testing and qualification of the instrument is the responsibility of the User.

Model Philosophy

This section presents an overview of the general planning and ground processing activities associated with this mission, together with a summary description of the user interfaces with the Space Station Programme.

The assumption made here is that the programme for integration of External Payloads will start in 1997 and will end December 2000 with the delivery of the three integrated EPA flight units at the launch site.
This timing is based on 3 major activities at system level:

• System analyses covering all aspects common to the various groupings and aiming at:
  - specifying all support equipment necessary for the 3 EPAs;
  - establishing an Interface Requirement Document (IRD) based on the selected instruments and the integrated EPAs;
• Analytical Integration which is dedicated mainly to specific instrument grouping analyses;
• Physical Integration which is dedicated to the integration and testing of the different models such as a Mechanical and Thermal Model (MTM) of an integrated EPA, an Engineering Model (EM) to validate the data handling and power interfaces between the EPA, the instruments and the station, and Qualification (QM) or Proto-Flight Models (PFM) corresponding to the selected groupings.

The support equipment including the CPD and SPLC will have a parallel development flow compatible with the overall integration schedule.

At an instrument level, this development and model philosophy implies delivery of:

• Software models,
• Instrument Models (mainly Engineering and Flight models)
• Instrument Ground Support Equipment (e.g.: containers, EGSE,specific tooling...),
• supporting documentation.

RD3 describes the ground integration activities in general. The data therein are provided as guidelines only and more precise information and dates will be provided once the instruments are selected and will be further refined and modified during the course of the programme.

The specific ground integration activities for the Early Utilisation EXPRESS Pallet Adapters are summarised in Figure 10.1. Figure 10.2 shows the follow-on utilisation of the EPAs and is of interest in the case of Early Utilisation as it shows the retum process from the ISS.

Figure 10.1.: Integration of EXPRESS Pallet Adapters for an Initial Flight.

Figure 10.2.: Return of EXPRESS Pallet Adapter and Use in Follow-on Flights.

Instrument Test Equipment

The user may empioy the same set of Instrument Test Equipment (ITE) hardware and software during instrument stand alone tests, during check out on the Payload Test Facility as a flight representative test bed, during tests on the fully integrated EXPRESS Pallet/EXPRESS Pallet Adapter and during orbital operations.