Acoustic Testing of the Cassini Spacecraft and Titan 4 Payload Fairing

Abstract

NASA Lewis Research Center recently led a multi-organizational acoustic test program. This testing consisted of acoustically exciting a Cassini spacecraft simulator in a full scale 60 foot high Titan 4 payload fairing with various acoustic blanket designs and configurations in a large reverberant acoustic chamber. The primary purpose of this test program was to measure the fairing's internal acoustics and spacecraft vibration, especially the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG) vibration, and to quantify the mitigation efforts in reducing these levels. Key to this reduction effort was the utilization of new acoustic blanket designs. This paper will provide the background and rationale for performing this test program, state the test program's primary and secondary objectives and describe the test matrix, hardware and instrumentation. A second part companion paper will provide the test results and data analysis