Patent ID: 7441473

Claim:
A method related to ground-based testing of onboard flight-vehicle systems utilizing simulated suborbital flight environments occurring during at least one essentially complete suborbital flight, within at least one range of mapped pressure-time environments, by at least one flight vehicle, said method comprising the steps of: a) selecting at least one range of test variables required for a single test setup to test all situations within the variables; b) for the selected required test setup, selecting at least one first pressure vessel to assist in simulating onboard flight-vehicle environments and selecting at least one adjoining second pressure vessel, having, with such first at least one pressure vessel, at least one common-boundary test apparatus, to assist in simulating extra-vehicular flight environments; c) for at least one second pressure-vessel design, selecting at least one pressure-vessel volume suitable for all the required test variables; and d) for the at least one selected pressure-vessel volume and such at least one range of test variables, selecting hardware/software combinations, including pressure modulating devices, having suitable technology and cost characteristics and being adapted to assist in control and measurement of such at least one range of test variables; e) wherein the steps of this method are used to produce at least one design useful in simulating pressure-time profiles corresponding to such suborbital flight environments during such at least one essentially complete suborbital flight by such at least one flight vehicle.