The chamber is a small hexagonal unit with a diameter of 45 cm and a height of 35 cm, designed for testing materials and components for satellites. Due to its small dimensions, the chamber was not created by welding but was machined from a single piece of stainless steel. An aluminum breadboard is placed at the bottom. Thanks to the system of channels woven into it, the breadboard can provide cooling down to - 180 °C using liquid nitrogen. At the same time, electric heaters are integrated into the chamber, allowing it to reach temperatures of up to 200 °C for baking purposes. The maintenance of a homogeneous internal temperature is ensured by stainless steel radiation shields.
An important part of the chamber is a deeply subcooled coldfinger grommet, which is designed to trap loose particles that evaporate from the tested parts during the baking process. This cryogenic trap protects the chamber walls and the vacuum pumping system from unwanted free particles.
To ensure the required level of purity, the chamber was first mechanically and then electrolytically polished, smoothing the material at a microscopic level. The assembly of the individual chamber components took place in STREICHER's cleanroom, which meets the ISO6 requirements of EN ISO 14644-1, specifying the classes of air cleanliness in terms of particle concentration and contamination with chemicals, particularly hydrocarbons.
The chamber was thus delivered ready to be equipped by specialists at the ESA laboratories with the necessary technologies to monitor the effects of the space environment on the tested materials.
We wish the chamber a successful operation and look forward to further cooperation with ESA.