An innovative attitude control subsystem (ACS) concept for small spacecraft is envisioned to provide controllable and selectable thrust levels for various mission phases. The system uses hydrazine propellant, decomposed with a gas generator into hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia. Decomposed gas mixture attains temperature over 750 °C (steady state), and it must be cooled to less than 150 °C by routing it through inconel tubing, for use at the thrusters. A plenum/heat exchanger/radiator system was designed and developed to cool and store the exhaust products for use by the closed loop ACS system. At high hydrazine consumption rates, the plenum radiator dissipates up to 1800 watts. Decomposed hydrazine, being at about 750 °C, presents unique high temperature radiator concerns as the available area for heat rejection on the small spacecraft. Addressing these technical challenges, a carbon‐carbon (C‐C) radiator was designed and developed with inconel tubing embedded within conductive carbon foam core. In the building block approach, mechanical and thermal performance of different interfaces was evaluated at the coupon and subscale component test levels. Subsequently, a full‐scale prototype C‐C radiator was designed and developed to satisfy operational performance requirements. This paper presents the results of the multifunctional foam core radiator development effort.
Multifunctional Carbon‐Carbon Foam‐Core Space Radiator Development
SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS INT.FORUM-STAIF 2005: Conf.Thermophys in Micrograv;Conf Comm/Civil Next Gen.Space Transp; 22nd Symp Space Nucl.Powr Propuls.;Conf.Human/Robotic Techn.Nat'l Vision Space Expl.; 3rd Symp Space Colon.; 2nd Symp.New Frontiers ; 2005 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 746 , 1 ; 3-9
2005-02-06
7 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Multifunctional Carbon-Carbon Foam-Core Space Radiator Development
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