全天X線監視装置搭載ループヒートパイプ

摘要

At 7:03am JST of July 16, 2009, the space shuttle Endeavour was launched from Kennedy Space Center, carrying aJapanese astronomical payload, Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI). After the first power supply planned for August2009, MAXI will start scanning about 90% of the entire sky in X-ray wavelengths, once every ninety minutes, using itstwo types of X-ray instruments: GSC (Gas Slit Camera) and SSC (Solid State Slit Camera). SSC detects individual X-rayphotons from the universe on its 32 pieces of X-ray CCD chips. Each CCD chip has one Peltier cooler on its backside,and will be cooled by about 40 K respect to the SSC camera body. Each Peltier cooler consumes about 1 watt anddeposits heat to the SSC camera body. In order to transfer more than 32 watts of heat from the SSC camera body to theoutside of the MAXI payload, and to emit the heat to the space, we use a new type of heat pipe, Loop Heat Pipe andRadiator System (LHPRS). We will keep LHPRS not working by applying a small amount of heat to LHPRS?shydro-accumulator, until the activation of the Peltier coolers of SSC planned for August 2009. In this paper, we present abrief description of the MAXI LHPRS.