Re:Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
by GlenTheMachine on Sunday January 20, 2019 @06:28PM
(#18956295)
Everything but the wind can be simulated in a thermal-vacuum chamber (with the vacuum part turned off).
Big t-vac chambers are pricey although you can typically rent them (eg from your local NASA or ESA facility). A Tier-1 research university with an aerospace engineering program will have several smaller ones, which still have the internal capacity of a refrigerator.
Re:Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
by bacon_waffle on Sunday January 20, 2019 @05:32PM
(#18956046)
It's not too hard to get dry ice (or liquid nitrogen) and a styrofoam box to do the low temperature; I'd think that dust ingress testing in Australia would be pretty straightforward ;).
One thing not mentioned, and a bit harder to simulate, is that the altitude is rather high at some stations which can make cooling problematic.
Re:Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
by wl on Sunday January 20, 2019 @05:28PM
(#18956026)
Commercial environmental test labs exist and are widely used to test electronic equipment. The ESD testing shouldn't be an issue for any of these labs, but the temperature and grit testing might be a little extreme for the equipment at some labs. Still, my experience has been that these labs are eager to solve any unusual environmental testing requirements and they can probably figure something out.
Re:Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
by jjoonathan on Sunday January 20, 2019 @06:27PM
(#18956293)
Sure, but not on a shoestring budget.
Re:Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
by JohnJamesRambo on Sunday January 20, 2019 @08:15PM
(#18956782)
Most low temp freezers used in science are -80 deg C freezers, that part should be reasonably easy to find.
The key takeaway is...
> The single most important thing is to test your equipment before taking it to Antarctica. This is obvious, but many people don't do it and their research programs are compromised by equipment failures which are completely avoidable. [....] Make sure that your equipment works correctly at the temperatures you will encounter in Antarctica.
But no advice is given on where to find a test environment that can simulate:
> Temperatures may occasionally go below −80 Celsius in far inland regions.
> The wind can blow up to 200 km/h in coastal regions, and it will carry grit in areas where there is no snow cover.
> Antarctica has very dry air which results in large amounts of static electricity, particularly when the wind is strong. Static electricity can instantly destroy unprotected electronic equipment.