How engineers used 3D X-rays to save a billion-star mission
In short: When a memory module failed during pre-flight testing for ESA’s Gaia mission, scientists had to determine if the fault was a fluke or a systemic manufacturing defect.
The Gaia mission aims to map the three-dimensional positions of one billion stars. To achieve this, the spacecraft relies on an onboard 'hard disk' to manage massive amounts of data. This video shows how ESA’s Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory used 3D X-ray Tomography to perform non-destructive internal scans of a failed memory module to pinpoint the exact source of the fault.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Keeping Gaia’s memory
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