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5th International Conference on Mechanics and Mechatronics Research (ICMMR 2018) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 417 (2018) 012028 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/417/1/012028
1234567890‘’“”

Test Technology in General Assembly of Large Satellites

Rongxin Yan*, Yong Wang, Wei Sun, Mian Chen, Zaihua Yang
Beijing Institute of Spacecraft Environment Engineering, No.104, Youyi
Road,Haidian, Beijing,China,100094

*corresponding author’s e-mail: pigsheepdog@126.com

Abstract. The special test technology of the assembly, integration and test (AIT) of large
satellites was studied, which accurately determine the leakage, alignment and mass property of
large satellites, and ensure the reliable operation of large satellites in orbit. The local and total
leakage testing technique was developed which based on quadrupole mass spectrometer and
helium mass spectrometer. To meet large satellite quality and high precision, the satellite mass
property testing equipment of large load bearing based on three coordinate conversion machine
has been set up. A laser tracker uniting theodolite measure system with high positional
precision and high angle measurement accuracy has been developed. Several large satellites
have been tested in the process of AIT with these testing equipment. The quality of the large
satellite has been effectively guaranteed.

1. Introduction
In the next few years, China will develop many large satellites, and these large satellites in the AIT. In
the process, each satellite must be at least 4 times leakage testing, one time mass property
measurement, 4 times alignment testing. This requires that the satellite chemical propulsion system
leakage should be tested by helium mass spectrometer used helium as search gas, and then the satellite
electric propulsion system leakage should be able to conduct direct leakage detection using work gas
Xenon. In mass property measurement, satellite quality reached more than 5000 kg. In terms of
installation alignment, the envelope of satellite structure size exceeds 10 meters, satellite angle
measurement accuracy up angle of second order of magnitude. Therefore, it is necessary to develop
the special test equipment and technology of the AIT of large satellites, to accurately determine the
leakage, alignment and mass property of large satellites, and ensure the reliable operation of large
satellites in orbit.

2. Large satellite leakage testing

2.1. Large satellite local leakage testing

Chemical propulsion system of satellite leakage testing mainly adopts the helium mass spectrometer
atmosphere accumulation method [1]. Satellite structure leakage are tested by the method of pressure
change leak detection [2,3]. Mass spectrometer system leak detection are used in pipelines [4]. The total
leakage detection technology in vacuum container is used to a higher sensitivity of spacecraft leakage
[5,6]
. Helium mass spectrometer is also used to test the total leak rate of the NASA space station and the
Russian spacecraft leak detection test.
For large satellite electric propulsion system requirements of a local leakage detection, the test
system was developed based on quadrupole mass spectrometer and helium mass spectrometer, as
shown in figure 1. The test system is mainly composed of quadrupole mass spectrometer with a sniffer,

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5th International Conference on Mechanics and Mechatronics Research (ICMMR 2018) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 417 (2018) 012028 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/417/1/012028
1234567890‘’“”

xenon positive pressure standard leak. A xenon calibration device with known leakage rate is
developed to calibrate test system from 10-6 Paˑm3 /s to 10-8 Paˑm3/s, and synthetic standard
uncertainty is better than 5%. With the development of the test system, on the basis of linear
comparison test, through the sniffer suck the local position of large satellite which is most likely to
leak, quadrupole mass spectrometer or helium mass spectrometer leak detector can give leakage signal
I2.With the same testing conditions, background signal I0 and xenon positive pressure standard leak
signal I1 are also tested, therefore, the large satellite local leakage is gotten as the Eq. 1 shown.
GAM500
satellite
Ges070
pressure standard sniffer
leak（Xe,He） QMG422
collection chamber collection
circulation pump chamber
fan gas
TMU0650
V2
satellite
V1 charging
K1 equipment
K3
quadrupole mass spectrometer K2 Initial value
container
（Helium mass spectrometer）

Figure. 1 the diagram of the satellite local Figure.2 the principle of satellite multi-system leak
detector leakage test system by mass spectrometer
I2  I0
Q Q0 (1)
I1  I 0

2.2. Satellite total leakage testing with multi-system leak detector by mass spectrometer.
Nowadays, helium mass spectrometer technology is widely used in the leak detection of spacecraft.
This technology can effectively solve leak problem of single sealing system. As the development of
spacecraft, multi-system leak detection is needed. Based on the old detector, ESA developed a
piezoelectricity crystal pulse sampling mass spectrometer leak detector [7], which contrast the ion flow
of search gas to the ion flow of compared gas. This method reduces effect of instability of vacuum
system and mass spectrometer, the sensibility and reliability are increased. On the same sensibility
level, the cost decreases clearly. Sodal [8] researched on the mass spectrometer using a pulsed gas
sampling system, and acquired satisfying result. After many experiments of detectable gas analysis
machine, and based on the GAM500 on-line mass produced by Germany IPI, we developed alternate
circle sampling system and get over the instability of long-time measure [9]. The multi-system leak
detector by mass spectrometer has been developed and used in the large satellite successfully.

2.2.1. Composition of total leakage testing equipment.The equipment is composed by on-line mass
spectrometer named as GAM500, gas cycle sampling system, collection chamber, charging equipment
and so on, the principle chart is shown on figure 2. GAM500 on-line mass spectrometer is combined
with QMA422 mass spectrometer, Ges070 sampling system, TMU0650 molecular pump vacuum
system and 8 sampling valve, which can acquire more sampling points.
Gas cycle sampling system is combined with two route: one route includes sampling valve,
collection chamber cycle pump, stop valve, the other route includes initial value container, sampling
valve, stop valve and initial value container cycle pump. A fan cycle system is installed in the
collection chamber which blows chamber air mixture equally in 5 minutes. The airproof capability of
collection chamber is: after charging 2kPa pure Nitrogen, the pressure reduces 150 Pa in 24 hours.
Charging equipment is combined with compressor, gas cylinder, standard container, mechanical
pump, control meter, control valve and so on. The charging equipment can pump the satellite system,
charge and recycle the search gas.

2.2.2. Test principle. Charge specific pressure search gas (there are some kinds of inert gases such as
He, Ne, Kr, ,Xe,CF4) into different test systems in satellite, seal the inter-face and push into the

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5th International Conference on Mechanics and Mechatronics Research (ICMMR 2018) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 417 (2018) 012028 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/417/1/012028
1234567890‘’“”

collection chamber, operate the fan in the collection chamber, reduce the background search gas in the
chamber. Close the chamber door and seal the chamber. Startup two cycle pump, open K3, close K1
and K2 valves to make the initial value container air the same as chamber air. Close K3, open K1 and
K2 valves, as the GAM500 operates well, cycle test collection chamber and the initial value container
have the same detectable gas ion flow. Stay the satellite in the chamber for t seconds to make the leak
search gas accumulate and the density increases. Open the fan cycle system and initial value container
cycle pump. The gas in the initial value container and the gas in the collection chamber flow into the
mass spectrometer alternately, and we achieve corresponding ion flow u i10 and ui1. After testing
several steady sampling cycle, inject standard gas Wi (Pib·Vb) into collection chamber, and then open
the fan cycle system to make the standard gas, search gas and air mixed uniformly. The ion flow in
initial value container gas and chamber gas are ui20 and ui2 respectively. Because the test time is short
and we test alternately, the stability of pumping speed, and the stability of QMS can be ensured, and
the test ion flow keep stable and can be repeated well. The ratio between standard gas Wi (Pib·Vb) and
chamber atmosphere gas is about 1%. After injecting standard gas, the collection chamber pressure
changes a little. The total leakage of different satellite system can be acquired as following equation:
Wi (u i1  u i10 )
Qi 
t[(u i 2 u i 20 )  (u i1  u i10 )] (2)
In the equation, Wi (Pib· Vb) is the standard gas (Pa·m3), Wi = Pib· Vb, Vb is the volume of standard gas
flow container, Pib is the pressure of search gas of injecting collection chamber.
In the atmosphere, the minimal He concentration can be test is 13×10-9, CF4 concentration is
10×10-9, Ne concentration is 3×10-6, SF6 concentration is 0.3×10-9, Kr and Xe concentration is 10×10-9.
For the collection chamber with 100 m3 volume, in 24 hours, the minimal He leak rate can be test is
1.5×10-6 Pam3/s, CF4 leak rate is 1.1×10-6 Pam3/s, Ne leak rate is 3.5×10-5 Pam3/s, SF6 leak rate is
3×10-8 Pam3/s, Kr and Xe leak rate are 1.1×10-6 Pam3/s.

3. Mass property testing

Mass Properties of an object, including mass, center of gravity, moment of inertia, and product of
inertia are determined by satellite material, shape, and structure. They are important parameters that
reflect the satellite’s intrinsic mechanical characters. Mass and center of gravity are measured by three
point support equipment. Moment of inertia, and product of inertia are tested by the torsional
pendulum technology [10]. But those measurement can only carry out single axis direction, the
horizontal axis and vertical axis direction need different adapter tools, lifting and rotating satellite
repeatedly, the security hidden danger of satellite, and the test efficiency is very low.
Since 2009, we have successfully developed three coordinate conversion instrument with
capacity of 3 tons. According to the need of large satellite quality, high precision, as shown in figure 3,
we developed satellite mass property equipment based on three coordinate conversion machine of
large load bearing. The equipment is divided into two parts. One part is three coordinate conversion
and other part is test platform. The test platform is three point support equipment or torsional
pendulum equipment. The mass, center of gravity, and moment of inertia for larger satellite are tested
just one lifting. The longitudinal center measurement principle of its satellite is shown in Eq.3:

Xc 
Y 、
c  Yc  cos  RH (3)
sin

Figure. 3 The large satellite mass property equipment

3
5th International Conference on Mechanics and Mechatronics Research (ICMMR 2018) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 417 (2018) 012028 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/417/1/012028
1234567890‘’“”

Using three coordinate conversion equipment, in vertical A state, α = 0, get the direction cosine (0,
1), IX can be measured. Using three coordinate conversion , change satellite install direction α, , and
test out the several groups of direction cosine respectively corresponding to the moment of inertia of I1,
I2, I3, I4, can use the Eq.4, test out along the different moment of inertia of axis of rotation of the
satellite.
1 1 I I I I (4)
Iy  ( I1  I 2  2I x )  I x , Iz  ( I3  I 4  2I x )  I x I xy  1 2 I xz  3 4
2 sin 2  2 sin 2  2 sin 2 2 sin 2
Large satellite mass property test system maximum load reach 5000 kg, 50000 Nm moment of
inertia. One lifting can detect different axis center of gravity, moment of inertia, synthetic standard
uncertainty is better than 0.1%.

4. Alignment of satellite assemble

Satellite installation alignment is for relative to the satellite coordinate system to the installed
instrument precision position and normal vector measurement products generally used the principle of
theodolite intersection test [11], however, the space dimension of the large satellite has reached dozens
of meters, requires both direction test to high precision, also requires a positional accuracy is high.
With the laser tracker measurement location high precision, widely used in aerospace assembly
manufacture, we developed a laser tracker uniting theodolite measurement system [12], Which effective
use the characteristics of the theodolite with high Angle measurement and laser tracker the advantages
of high precision of observation points. A set of conversion standard benchmark was made. The
measurement system can simultaneously test satellite by a theodolite and the laser tracker. Fig 4 is
theodolite measurement system. The position can be tested according to Eq.5:
Y
P'(X,Y)

sα
A
Y

co
X/
/si
nα
B

αA αB X
A b B'
Figure. 4 Principle of theodolite measurement system
sin B cos A sin A sin B 1  sin A cot BP  sin B cot AP 
X b, Y b Z  b  h (5)
sin（ B   A） sin（ B   A） 2 sin（ B   A） 

5. Summary
The large satellite of leakage, mass property, alignment testing and testing calibration problems have
been effectively solved. The testing systems have been set up and the testing reliability is effectively
improved. Several large satellites have been tested in the process of AIT. The quality of the larger
satellite has been effectively guaranteed.
Large satellite calibration device of leakage test system has less than the 5% synthetic standard
uncertainty, range of the total leakage rate from 110-3 Pam3/s to 110-5 Pam3/s. The local leakage
testing range is from110-3 Pam3 / s to 110-8 Pam3/s and synthetic standard uncertainty of calibration
is better than 20%. The test system of large satellite mass property can be used to test more than
5000kg satellite. The moment of inertia can reach 50000Nm, the precision of the testing system is t
better than 0.1%. Large satellite alignment testing system has been developed. The calibration device
synthesis standard uncertainty is better than that of 1 um, angle synthesis standard uncertainty is better
than that of 3 ". The position synthesis standard uncertainty of alignment testing system is about 10
um, and angle testing synthetic standard uncertainty is better than that of 12 ".

4
5th International Conference on Mechanics and Mechatronics Research (ICMMR 2018) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 417 (2018) 012028 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/417/1/012028
1234567890‘’“”

Acknowledgments
This work were supported by the National Science Foundation of China (U1537109) and
technological base (JSJL2015203B019)

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