Advanced Passive Thermal Experiment for Hybrid Variable Conductance Heat Pipes and HiK™ Plates on the International Space Station

Date

2017-07-16

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

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Publisher

47th International Conference on Environmental Systems

Abstract

As NASA prepares to further expand human and robotic presence in space, it is well known that spacecraft architectures will be challenged with unprecedented thermal environments in deep space. In addition, there is a need to extend the duration of the missions in both cold and hot environments, including cis-lunar and planetary surface excursions. The heat rejection turn–down ratio of the increased thermal loads in the above-mentioned conditions is crucial for minimizing vehicle resources (e.g. power). Therefore, future exploration activities will have the need of thermal management systems that can provide higher reliability and performance, and power and mass reduction. In an effort to start addressing the current technical gaps in thermal management systems, novel new passive thermal technologies have been selected to be included as part of suite of experiments to be tested on the board of the International Space Station (ISS), tentatively in 2017.

Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT), together with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA Johnson Space Center, are working to test and validate hybrid wick VCHP with warm reservoir and HiK™ plates on the ISS under the Advanced Passive Thermal experiment (APTx) project.

The APTx consists of two separate payloads that will be tested sequentially: • Payload 1 contains a VCHP/HiK™ plate assembly: a hybrid-wick copper-Monel-water VCHP design consists of a copper evaporator (with sintered wick inside), a monel adiabatic section and a condenser both with grooved wick inside and a NCG reservoir thermally and physically attached to the evaporator. In turn, the VCHP evaporator is mounted on an aluminum HiK™ plate. • Payload 2 contains a HiK™ plate and the ElectroWetting Heat Pipe (EWHP) experiment, developed by the University of Texas at Austin.

This paper will cover the results to date for the flight test, which is planned for 2017.

Description

Mohammed T. Ababneh, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT), USA
Calin Tarau, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT), USA
William G. Anderson, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT), USA
Jeffery T. Farmer, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, USA
Angel R. Alvarez-Hernandez, NASA Johnson Space Center, USA
Stephania Ortega, NASA Johnson Space Center, USA
ICES104: Advances in Thermal Control Technology
The 47th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in South Carolina, USA on 16 July 2017 through 20 July 2017.

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Keywords

Advanced Passive Thermal Experiment, Hybrid Variable Conductance Heat Pipes, HiK™ Plates, International Space Station, flight test, micro-gravity environment

Citation