THERMAL ARCHITECTURES AND INTERFACE IDEAS FOR MODULAR SERVICABLE SATELLITES

摘要

On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) offers a highly attractive solution to maintain a space system in orbit, to replace or implement new payloads and components and to remove space debris. This leads to an extension of spacecraft lifetime, an improvement of the satellite performance and the realization of new mission scenarios. The presented concept is developed under the participation of Technische Universit?t Berlin (TU Berlin). It offers a novel approach for the design of a modular serviceable satellite consisting of single modules. Each module contains one or more components of a typical satellite subsystem. It is also equipped with standardized interfaces for mechanical, electrical, data and thermal interconnection. The demand for removability and interfaces combined with the approach of a modular satellite leads to new requirements and constraints for the data distribution system, the attitude and control system and the thermal concept to name only a few. In order to manage the temperatures of a fractionized satellite as well as of single modules and components, different thermal architectures are applicable. This can be done with and without an additional thermal conductive interface between the modules. The developed thermal concepts are the focus of the presented research work. Several different architectures were investigated and compared by newly developed software. Based on this possible interface alternatives are compared. For this purpose state-of-the-art thermal components have been analysed with respect to fit the existing requirements and constraints. Also the development of novel interface options has been taken into account. A tailored test rig to investigate the parameters of the developed thermal interfaces is currently under development. A short presentation of this test bed will complete the paper.