Vibration testing at Ball Aerospace

MinXSS inside the NanoRacks deployer on the Ball Aerospace vibration table. James Paul Mason stands by nervously watching and ready to catch MinXSS if the deployer door opens.

On December 16, 2014 we brought the fully integrated MinXSS flight model 1 over to Ball Aerospace (just a couple of miles away from us) to strap it down to a table and shake the bolt out of it, almost literally. Part of the purpose is to verify workmanship — to ensure that the bolts don’t shake out*. NanoRacks, the company that provides the deployer that attaches to one of the robotic arms on the International Space Station, came out for this test. They brought the very first deployer they ever made as a place we could put MinXSS into for the vibration test. This increased the similarity to the actual rocket launch… except on the real rocket the deployer will be in bubble wrap. Yep, you heard that right. Actual bubble wrap. That will make the rocket launch a pretty smooth ride from the perspective of MinXSS.

Let me tell you, the noise it made when that table starting vibrating our CubeSat was SCARY. It just kept getting louder, and louder, and LOUDER. My palms were sweating like crazy. What’s more, the NanoRacks deployer didn’t have the pin to keep its front door closed, so we just had two clamps on it. I (James Mason) was standing in front of it in case the clamps came loose, the door opened, and MinXSS got launched out of the deployer. The idea was that I’d catch it. Yeah right! Fortunately, MinXSS stayed safe and sound inside. Nothing broke and the system passed all of our tests when we brought it back to the lab.

*Funny story: one of the bolts did actually shake out of the NanoRacks deployer during the last vibration axis!

MinXSS sitting inside the NanoRacks deployer with the access panel removed so you can see inside. Also inside is a spacer where another CubeSat would normally go.