Development of Mechanical Heat Switch for Future Space Missions

Date

2014-07-13

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44th International Conference on Environmental Systems

Abstract

The heat switch provides appropriate thermal switching (high or low thermal conductance) depending on the thermal environment around spacecraft. It has an advantage in terms of thermal control of spacecraft such as a lunar rover and planetary exploration spacecraft which have difficulty securing sufficient heater power to keep the spacecraft within its allowable temperature range. The authors have developed a paraffin-actuated heat switch. The required thermal performance is 1W/K as ON thermal conductance and 100 as ON/OFF thermal conductance ratio. The test model was fabricated and some activities to improve thermal performance were conducted, such as Au coating on the contact surfaces. A breadboard model (BBM) with the improved design was fabricated and its performance evaluated. Consequently, BBM achieved 1.6W/K as ON thermal conductance and 127 as ON/OFF ratio.

Description

Tucson, Arizona
The 44th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Tuscon, Arizona, USA on 13 July 2014 through 17 July 2014.
Makiko Ando, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan
Keisuke Shinozaki, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan
Atsushi Okamoto, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan
Hiroyuki Sugita, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan
Takehiro Nohara, University of Tsukuba, Japan

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