[Ground-station] pop quiz!

[Michelle Thompson]

Phil Karn KA9Q has been working on something fun for us. If you enjoy this
quiz, please feel free to share it and let him know!

Given the documents that you can find at:
https://github.com/phase4space/AO-10-blueprints

Quiz for fans of the AMSAT Phase IIIB/AO-10 blueprints
Phil Karn, KA9Q

Question 1: AO-10 carried a 400-newton kick (rocket) motor that used
hypergolic propellants. It was fired only once, but the burn duration was
1.68 times longer than planned. Why? (Note: the burn did *not* end because
of propellant depletion.)

The cause can be discerned from the prints; i.e., it was a hardware
problem, not a software bug or operational mistake.

Optional hint 1: The burn was timed in hardware.

Question 2: The ground test of the hardware consisted of successfully
executing a maximal length burn. What tests could have revealed it?

Question 3: Although the first burn did not deplete the propellants, it was
not possible to fire the engine again because of insufficient helium
pressure. Why? (Hint: the cause was not insufficient helium loading before
launch.)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openresearch.institute/pipermail/ground-station-openresearch.institute/attachments/20180608/ac5a68b9/attachment.html>