EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF PARTICLE CONTAMINATION REDISTRIBUTION DURING LAUNCH EXPRO PLUS - RE-ISSUE

Objective: To manufacture representative fairing mock-ups and perform test campaigns to understand particle contamination redistribution during launch and provide inputs for modelling software.Description: There is currently no possibility to quantify the particle contamination of spacecraft from encapsulation under fairing until separation in space. The current assumptions for the associated allocation are coming from launch service providers and are based on analyses. The considered budgets are significant and are representing, for contamination sensitive missions, most of the total allocation. Consequently, important operational constraints are imposed during the spacecraft MAIT to be able to sustain such contamination levels without overcoming the end-of-life requirements. Thus, to adapt the operational constraints at spacecraft or at launcher level to meet the target particle cleanliness requirements, itis key to quantify properly the particle contamination induced during this step via dedicated test campaigns using representative mock-ups. The mock-ups are aimed to be used under various testing environments to allow the assessment of the particle redistributionusing adequate monitoring techniques. This activity encompasses the following tasks: - Preliminary Requirements definition from various European launcher fairing design and identification of the key parameters to ensure representativeness at mock-up level; - Design and manufacturing of representative fairing mock-ups; - Identification and selection of relevant particle contamination monitoring techniques; - Environmental testing of the instrumented fairing mock-ups to characterize particle contamination redistribution; - Processing of the obtained data to be used as input for modelling tools.