Developing an Advanced Hardware Testing System to Enable Rapid Spacecraft Manufacturing

The use of small satellites in commercial constellations has attracted much attention in recent days. This necessitates the need to utilize innovative solutions to building multiple identical satellites both quickly and economically. An automated test system is developed for mass production and verification of hardware. It eases the repetitiveness in production verification tests, reduces human errors and increases reliability. The thesis addresses challenges in large-scale hardware testing with a particular focus on two primary areas: (i) specific process and challenges in building a spacecraft power subsystem; and (ii) testing hardware at a large-scale. The first part of this thesis presents the challenges affiliated with hardware production and validation tests. The second part presents the framework developed to generate and track hardware manufacturing information. The third part details the design and implementation of a system comprising of algorithms, instrumentation, and data acquisition units that interface with the device under test.M.A.S