AIT

MSSL has a wide range of facilities on site to support the technology programme within MSSL; these facilities are also available for use by other university groups and commercial companies, either as part of a research collaboration or via a contractual arrangement.

The facilities are generally designed to cater for small to medium-sized instruments and to meet ESA, NASA or other space agencies’ standards and requirements. In addition to test facilities, MSSL also has cleanrooms providing environmentally controlled areas for space flight hardware assembly, integration and test.

The AIT engineering group, in conjunction with the Mechanical and thermal engineering, electronics engineering and software engineering groups provide assembly, integration and test requirements support to MSSL in-house space flight hardware projects. This includes input to Electronic Ground Support Equipment design and deployment, Thermal Ground Support Equipment (TGSE) design, assembly and integration and Ground Support Equipment (GSE) used during the integration, assembly and test of space flight hardware.

The AIT engineering group also provides input to bespoke vacuum test systems design, assembly, integration and operation. The AIT engineering group is highly experienced in space flight hardware contamination control, engineering and management and includes biological control, engineering and management for space flight missions that are bound by COSPAR and planetary protection requirements.