Transmission of Ultrasonic Elastic Waves to Assess the Quality of Panel-to-Panel Connections in Satellite Structures

The intention of the Responsive Space initiative is to develop procedures and technologies necessary to reach the goal of a six-day satellite that entails all steps from ordering to operations. The experimental test method presented in this paper performs a quality assessment of the connections between satellite panels either as an alternative to traditional vibration testing or as a precursor to in-situ monitoring of panel-to-panel connections. This technique, based on the energy of a transmitted wave across the connection, is intended for responsive satellites designed with prefabricated and pretested panels for which traditional vibration testing would be redundant. The energy used to assess the integrity of the connection is in reference to a previously taken baseline. Experiments were conducted on a functional satellite to test, in part, the feasibility of deploying this test method under realistic circumstances. This paper presents those results and an assessment of the test method.