Resonate Testing, the Newry-based commercial industrial test house, has completed shock trials on hardware that will be used on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Lunar Pathfinder spacecraft.
The Lunar Pathfinder mission will help lay the foundation for providing dedicated communications, navigation and operations services for future explorations of the moon, and is due to launch in 2025.
Lunar Pathfinder will offer nearside, farside, orbit and polar services to missions launching in the coming years, and lay the foundations for a constellation of combined telecommunications and navigation satellites around the moon.
Resonate Testing has been working in partnership with Dr Ben Kieniewicz from European Engineering and Consultancy Ltd (EECL) to conduct testing on the two payload modules that EECL is supplying ESA.
The company, established by the Nacelle Group in 2015, has been conducting Shock Response Spectrum (SRS) testing on both the NaviMoon global positioning software (GPS) - the first piece of hardware to be produced for ESA’s Moonlight Initiative - and the low noise amplifier.
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The purpose of the testing was to ensure the design changes made by Dr Kieniewicz resulted in a product that would be able to withstand the power of the launch on a moon rocket. The testing carried out by Resonate Testing’s team of engineers simulated the forces experienced by the components during rocket launch and the subsequent separation stage.
EECL was assigned the task of turning SpacePNT’s module into fully-tested flight hardware designing a crucial world-class low noise amplifier (LNA) that boosts usable signals.
Tom Mallon, managing director of Resonate Testing, said: “When Dr Ben Kieniewicz approached us about conducting testing on EECL’s hardware, we were delighted to get involved.
“There is so much potential and opportunity within the space industry and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with companies in the UK Space Forum and refine our expertise in this area.”
“We are proud to be able to accommodate this type of testing, in addition to any bespoke testing requirements for clients, which means that companies do not have to go outside of the UK for their testing services.
"Our partnership with EECL on this project was hugely successful, and it was great to be exposed to Dr Ben’s talent and design expertise.”
Dr Kieniewicz commented: “When I approached Tom and the team at Resonate Testing, I was impressed by their capability and expertise, and the fact that they could more than meet my requirements.
“The partnership has been hugely successful – the team’s insight, flexibility and attention to detail ensured the testing was carried out to the highest of standards, and the whole process was as seamless as could be.”
Resonate Testing made a pre-tax profit of €53,000 in 2021, up from €13,800 in 2020. The most recent accounts for the firm showed current assets of just over €73,000. Nacelle Group provides the firm with 6,000 sq ft of purpose-built testing facilities.
Photo: The ESA and Russian Federal Space Agency's ExoMars 2016 lifts off on a Proton-M rocket at Baikonur cosmodrome on March 14, 2016 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. (Pic: Stephane Corvaja/ESA via Getty Images)
