Vibration testing is common practice in qualification and acceptance testing of space systems. During these tests, the survivability, as well as the response of a System Under Test (SUT) are characterized in the ultimate expected operating environment. The SUT is excited using a shaker to control the vibration profile in terms of acceleration amplitude, frequency, and power spectral density.

The Institute of Space Systems of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum Für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), investigated the need for a new test setup for operational vibration testing for different Systems Under Test (SUTs). The SUT is to be operational during the vibration test for which a dedicated fixture and support hardware are required. As the combined frequency response of the hardware and SUT is unknown, it is investigated how to distinguish the response of the SUT from that of the setup and which requirements have to be formulated accordingly. This thesis follows from this investigation and describes the process to design, build, and verify a new test setup for operational vibration testing. Ultimately, the setup is validated by a test campaign with multiple SUTs, making it an asset in the development of reliable space systems by DLR.

This summary is about the highlights of the final design of the LAMP (Low Altitude Modular Platform). This report follows the project plan, baseline report and midterm report. This report presents the market analysis for the platform followed by the detailed design of the platform. The design of each subsystem is treated on its own after which the integration, manufacturing and operations of all subsystems are discussed. The low-altitude modular platform is a versatile satellite platform with a wide range of capabilities. It bridges the gap between small CubeSats and high-end Earth observational satellites, while also flying at 300 Km, enabling higher resolutions in a small form factor. While the market share of CubeSats has grown a lot in recent years, their capabilities are still limited. Due to practical constraints of miniaturisation, the spacecraft bus platform typically occupies approximately 50% to 80% of the total satellite internal volume. This problem is however remedied with the use of larger satellites, which is the market gap LAMP tries to occupy. It has both the advantages of standardisation, ease of production, and low cost of CubeSats, while also possessing a large payload fraction and the bus capabilities to accommodate a high-end earth observation payload. LAMP is also innovative in its communication capabilities: It is planned to be the first satellite platform to use the SpaceX Starlink constellation. This gives LAMP unparalleled communication capabilities for an earth observational satellite in its class. LAMP is capable of sending all the information of its design payload (the DST) in livelink. In certain orbits, it is even capable of streaming 1080p 60fps video live to Earth. This opens it for a great number of new applications related to civil, law enforcement, and military surveillance...