The engineering model of REPTile-2 has passed its thermal tests, both in stand alone payload and integrated with the spacecraft bus Engineering Development Unit (EDU). In addition to showing spacecraft functionality across the temperature range of -20C to 50C, instrument noise was measured at the various temperatures. The following Figures “(-20, 0, 20, 50C) stand alone and integrated with EDU)” show the individual detector’s background noises are consistently below the required noise level (30 keV). The guard ring (the outer area of four detectors connected together) noises are higher because its area is twelve times as large as the individual inner areas. It is evident that the background noise levels increase with temperature and lower when integrated with the EDU, both of which are expected behavior of the instrument.
