The SERMS Laboratory: A Research and Test Facility for Space Payloads and Instrumentation

The SERMS laboratory (Study of Radiation Effects on Materials for Space Applications) is a joint laboratory of the Perugia University and the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN). It is located in Terni, as part of a network of research laboratories and test facilities at the Engineering Faculty of the University premises in Terni. Constituted in 1995, the SERMS laboratory has provided support to major scientific projects in the field of astrophysics and astroparticle physics, as the GLAST, LAZIO-SIRAD and AMS Projects. Since 2004, an university spin-off - the SERMS s.r.l. - contributes to the SERMS development and extends the field of its activities to industrial projects. In this paper, an overview of the SERMS laboratory with a brief description of all the equipment and some examples of thermal analysis, design and thermo-vacuum tests done in the laboratory will be presented.