Thermal Design of the SCIN/MAGIC High Altitude Balloon Flight Gondola for Mid-Latitude and Antarctic Flights

摘要

The SCIN/MAGIC balloon flight experiment is an attempt to combine cosmic ray detection technology with a superconducting magnet to gain knowledge in attempting to characterize and quantify mass properties of the detected rays. The following report examines some of the design and analysis techniques used to generate an effective Thermal Control System (TCS) for a long duration balloon flight of the SCIN/MAGIC experiment. External environments were established from both spacecraft design data and environmental data gathered from weather satellites and surface measurements. No electrical energy is required for the SCIN/MAGIC experiment therefore no energy was dissipated within the gondola enclosure. Analyses were conduced utilizing computer codes developed for thermal design of orbiting space vehicles. Thermal control was achieved by utilizing passive methods, ie., thermal insluation, isolation, and selection of coatings with optical properties which provided the desired thermal response to calculated environments. All thermal design requirements were met utilizing the above techniques. The experiment is scheduled to be flown in either an Antarctic flight environment or in a midlatitude flight environment.