Thermal Control Technologies for Europa Clipper Mission

The Europa Clipper Mission to Europa, a moon of Jupiter, is planned for a launch in 2022. Since Europa is at a large distance (5.6 A.U.) from the Sun, the solar flux is less than 4% that at Earth. This requires very large solar arrays to meet the power demands of a typical new mission concept. Hence, conservation of power for use in thermal control is extremely important. To achieve this goal a mechanically pumped fluid loop heat rejection system (HRS) is utilized to harvest waste heat from the spacecraft components. In addition to this several thermal control technologies are employed. They include a high performance dual Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) blanket design to minimize the large majority of heat loss from the spacecraft; two passive thermal control valves in series to greatly reduce the heat loss from the HRS to its radiator; a low temperature louver to further reduce the loss from the radiator; and a high performance pump to produce high flow rate and pressure rise to meet the thermal demands of Europa Clipper. This paper will describe these technologies, schemes for their implementation, and results of development tests to validate their performance.