Assembly, test and integration of spacecraft components, instruments and structures, Moments of Inertia (MOI) and centre of gravity of flight hardware.
The ISO class 6 cleanroom houses the majority of MSSL vacuum test chambers and calibration facilities.
These facilities are:
- Low Energy Plasma Instrument Calibration (LEPIC) chamber
- Optical calibration chamber
- Twin materials screening (MSC) chambers
- 20 Kelvin vacuum cryostat
- Vacuum bakeout chamber
The ISO class 6 cleanroom is a vertical flow particle filtration design. The LEPIC and Optical calibration chamber doors are positioned in such a manner that the cleanliness classification is ISO class 5. This ensures the cleanest possible environment when space flight hardware is prepared and installed into the facilities.
Specification
Dimensions: 12m (L) by 10m (W)
Filtration efficiency: HEPA, 99.997% for 0.3 micron diameter particles
Laminar flow benches: Yes, one ISO Class 5 laminar flow benches available
Network: Yes, 10/100 Mb
Gas supply: Yes, several nitrogen gas supply outlets for instrument purge. Zero grade nitrogen available
Temperature: 20oC +-2oC
Humidity: 50% RH +-10%
Max. occupants: 6
Cleanroom validation: Yes, by external independent contractors
Other services
The ISO class 6 cleanroom has a total of 7 liquid nitrogen outlet points mainly for use on the various vacuum test chambers and Optical calibration chamber. The liquid nitrogen supply lines are continous Super Insulated Vacuum Lines (SIVL) which minimises liquid nitrogen boil off. The SIVL supply lines are fitted with stay fulls to ensure that only liquid nitrogen is fed from the outlets no matter how many systems are demanding LN2.
Status
Nominal, in use by Solar Orbiter EAS and LISA Pathfinder