Universe ID: 12455

NICER Electromagnetic Testing Time-lapse Videos

Released on February 3, 2016

The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) payload undergoes electromagnetic testing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Electromagnetic testing serves to verify that NICER’s electrical subsystems do not interfere with each other or with International Space Station electrical systems through, for example, conducted or transmitted emissions. This test also verifies that NICER is not susceptible to malfunction due to the electromagnetic environment of the space station.

Two time-lapse videos show the NICER payload deploy during electromagnetic testing and return to its stowed configuration following the tests.

Time-lapse of the NICER payload returning to its stowed configuration after electromagnetic testing on Feb. 3, 2016, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

The time-lapse video opens with NICER in its fully deployed configuration. In this configuration, the FRAM plate is on the left, the X-ray Timing Instrument (XTI) “box” on the right and the Deploy and Pointing System (DAPS) boom connects the two horizontally across the middle of the frame.

While the DAPS is responsible for swinging the XTI swiftly from target to target across the sky, it can only do so in the weightless environment on orbit, not in Earth’s gravity on the ground. Stowing and deploying tests must therefore be conducted with the payload lying on its side and the weight of the moving parts supported by a structure on wheels.