On Dec 19, 2014 AMS student Sinai Mwagomba successfully defended his master’s thesis titled A method for thermal ambient tests of space technology equipment in a thermal chamber – development and validation (main supervisor: Riho Vendt PhD from Tartu Observatory). The aim of the thesis was to develop a method for thermal ambient testing of space equipment at Tartu Observatory, to validate it and to compile the measurement uncertainty budget.

The defence went very well: Sinai was able to confidently answer all the questions both from the opponent and the audience. The defence committee rated the thesis with the highest grade: “A”.

The work is one in the series of recent works carried out by AMS students in the framework of the space research programme launced at University of Tartu and Tartu Observatory, which recently made headlines with the launch of the EstCube-1 student satellite. The temperature regime is notoriously harsh for satellites orbiting the earth, with temperatures oscillating in the range of -100 °C to +100 °C, depending on whether the Sun shines on the satellite or is ecliped by the Earth. Thus, the main use of the developed method will be testing of space equipment before launching into the space. However, also many other fields (biochemistry, molecular biology, materials science) will benefit very much from rigorous temperature control and testing.