Is a giant vacuum chamber enough to test the spaceworthiness of the Orion spaceship?

Question

NASA's Constellation Program will be testing the manned Orion Spaceship in a giant vacuum chamber. It will be sent to explore the Moon, Mars, and other parts of the solar system.

http://macrocosm-magbook.blogspot.com/2007/06/gargantual-vacuum-chamber-to-test-orion.html

Answer 1

I don't know for sure but hopefully NASA knows what they are doing & all will be fine.

Answer 2

The reason they do testing under vacuum conditions is to simulate the environment it will be exposed to. The major reason is to do thermal testing and test the cooling systems if any are used. In space there is no atmosphere so the spacecraft cannot dissipate the heat as it were here on earth using air. How effective do you think a fan would be in space? Under a vaccum the only way to remove heat is by radiation. Cooling systems can pump the heat from the hot side to the cool side. When you pump down an object to a vacuum condition, the thermal effects are drastically different than what you would expect to see if it had an atmosphere to conduct heat away from. If subcomponents aren't thermaly conducted properly, they can continuously heat up until damaged. In the chamber the item under test will be monitored with an array of thermocouples to see how it is operating under simulated solar loads and under normal opeating conditions. Trust me, the amount of tests these things go through are tremendous and very thorough.

Answer 3

No it's not enough.

Besides thermal vacuum, Orion (and all of its individual components) will have to undergo the following tests, as well:

Vibration testing (3 axes, possibly up to 50 g's RMS to 2 kHz both random, and "swept" frequency)

Thermal cycling without vacuum for dozens of cycles (that lasts for days).

ESD testing

EMI testing both radiated and conducted, both from the vessel/components and to the vessel/components

Since it is on the "Cape", salt fog and humidity testing .

There will be many, many others tests as well.

That vacuum chamber is only good for a few types of these tests (thermal, vacuum thermal, leak and pressure testing, and a couple of other minor related tests).

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Answer 4

The vacuum chamber will test seal integrity, system strenght, etc. It will need to, and probably will, include the ability to reproduce the frigid tempertures, heating from the sun, radiation, etc. Alternatively, individual sub-systems will be tested individually and deemed flight worthy. Vacuum is not the only issue when it comes to designing spacecraft.

Answer 5

Not really. Space has all sorts of radiation rays and other stuff flying around that is going to constantly impact the ship. I'm sure they know what they're doing, though.