The Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) at Pax River teamed with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to perform a shielding test of the NASA Space Shuttle Orbiter "Endeavour." Pax River was responsible for testing in the high frequency range up to 18 GHz. NASA imposed some very tight limitations on the time allotted to perform the test and the amount of power that could be radiated during the performance of the test. This required Pax River to perform much development work on our existing shielding effectiveness test method using reverberation techniques in order to meet NASA's needs. This paper discusses the method in detail and describes the development work and its validation.
Testing was conducted on the NASA Space Shuttle Orbiter, Endeavour, to determine the high frequency shielding capability of three major cavities; the flight deck, the mid-deck/crew quarters and the payload bay. Testing was performed using highly modified reverberation techniques. The hangar at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center served as the "reverberation chamber" for the spacecraft. An account of the test method is presented in detail, along with setup diagrams, photos, and graphs of the shielding measurements.
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