Development of Passive Thermal Control for Mars Surface Missions
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46th International Conference on Environmental Systems ICES-2016-120 10-14 July 2016, Vienna, Austria Development of Passive Thermal Control for Mars Surface Missions S. Herndler1 and C. Ranzenberger2 RUAG Space GmbH, Stachegasse 16, 1120 Vienna, Austria and S. Lapensée3 ESA - European Space Agency, Keplerlaan 1, 2200 Nordwijk, The Netherlands The extreme thermal environment on Mars asks for an effective thermal insulation to keep equipment within allowable temperature limits and to limit power consumption. Furthermore the thermal insulation should be light weight, flexible, adaptable and consume minimum volume. As a consequence of the Mars atmosphere, conventional vacuum based multilayer insulation offers low efficiency. Therefore, a novel thermal insulation making use of the existing Mars atmosphere was developed. This paper describes in detail the entire process and its results. Potential materials were identified based on literature, samples and manufacturer data and underwent material testing for characterization. Concepts and designs of three-dimensional demonstrators incorporating attachment, grounding and venting provisions were developed. Thermal performance of the demonstrators was validated by measurements in representative environments. Nomenclature A = area, m2 Ar = Argon avg. = average β = volume expansion coefficient, 1/K CO = carbon monoxide CO2 = carbon dioxide CVCM = collected volatile condensable material d = thickness, m DHMR = dry heat microbial reduction ε = emissivity, - ESA = European space agency ESTEC = European space research and technology centre FS = fumed silica g = gravitational acceleration, m/s2 GG = gas gap GL = conductive heat exchange factor, W/m2K GR = radiative heat exchange factor, - h = heat transfer coefficient, W/m2K HDPIF = high-density polyimide foam k = thermal conductivity, W/mK λ = thermal conductivity of present fluid, W/mK L = characteristic length, m LAVAF = large vacuum facility 1 Systems Engineer, Thermal Systems, RUAG Space GmbH, Stachegasse 16, A-1120 Vienna, Austria 2 Head of Systems Engineering, Thermal Systems, RUAG Space GmbH, Stachegasse 16, A-1120 Vienna, Austria 3 Thermal Engineer, ESA-ESTEC, TEC-MTT, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands LDMRF = low-density melamine resin foam LDPIF = low-density polyimide foam MER = Mars exploration rover MLI = multi layer insulation MPF = Mars pathfinder MSL = Mars Science Laboratory ν = kinematic viscosity, m2/s N2 = nitrogen Nu = Nusselt number, - O2 = oxygen P = power, W Pr = Prandtl number, - Ra = Rayleigh number, - RML = recovered mass loss RTG = radioisotope thermoelectric generator σ = Stefan-Boltzmann constant, W/m2K4 T = temperature, K TC = thermocouple TGA = thermogravimetric analysis VDA = vacuum deposited aluminum WEB = warm electronics box I. Introduction ars surface missions put challenging requirements on thermal insulation. It needs to be effective to limit M power consumption and to protect equipment from the harsh Martian environment at a minimum volume required. It needs to be light weight and flexible to be applied directly on the lander/rover external/internal walls, fitted to an electronic box or instrument, wrapped around electrical cables or applied to mechanisms. Furthermore, it needs to be compliant to stringent planetary protection requirements resulting in demanding contamination control measures. A. Mars Environment and its Implications on Thermal Insulation Mars temperature averages -53°C with variation from -128°C during polar night to +27°C on equator during 1 midday at closest point in orbit to Sun. The chemical composition of Mars atmosphere is dominated by CO2, accounting for 95.3%, with low-percentages of N2 (2.7%), Ar (1.6%), O2 (0.13%) and CO (0.08%). The average surface pressure on Mars is 6.36 mbar at mean radius, variable from 4.0 to 8.7 mbar depending on season.2 Generally heat transfer comprises of three fundamental modes: 1. Conduction, transfer of energy via physical contact, 2. Convection, transfer of energy via physical movement of e.g. gas particles and 3. Radiation, transfer of energy via emission or absorption of electromagnetic radiation. In absence of a transporting media i.e. in vacuum, radiation and solid conduction are the only modes of heat transfer. Conventional vacuum based multi layer insulation (MLI) aims at controlling and adjusting radiative heat transfer and at the same time tries to keep involved conductive heat transfer at a minimum, which works fine in vacuum. On Mars however atmosphere is present, thus gas conduction and convection of the present atmosphere have to be considered as modes of heat transfer in thermal insulation solutions for surface based equipment. As conventional vacuum-based MLI does not offer any measures to suppress conduction of a present gaseous media and is very thin in total, performance will be limited under aforementioned conditions. Thus other means of insulation have to be implemented for planetary landing missions. B. Thermal Insulation for Mars Surface Missions Previous Mars Landers and Rovers implemented aerogels, fumed silica, different foams and fibrous materials for thermal insulation, just to name a few. For the Viking landers foam, fiber, powder and multi layer insulations were evaluated for thermal insulation. The material selection was mainly driven by the requirements for planetary protection and resulted in the use of several inches of foam insulation and some MLI. Other studies assumed a foam insulation of 3 to 4 inches thickness for potential Mars missions.3 2 International Conference on Environmental Systems The same approach was used for MPF lander, which was insulated by a total of 4 inches of 32 kg/m³ polyurethane foam covered with aluminized Kapton film as thermal control surface material.3 The Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander payload electronics box was insulated by a flexible fiberglass insulation blanket with a density of about 16 kg/m3.3 For the Netlanders, although officially stopped in May 2003, three preselected insulation materials were tested in a simulated Mars environment. Melamine resin foam, polyimide foam and fumed silica were investigated, with fumed silica performing 4-5 times better than the foams in Mars environment.4 As thermal insulation for the Sojourner rover foams, vacuum jacketed enclosures and opacified powders were investigated. Finally a sheet and spar design for the warm electronics box (WEB) was selected with integrated structural and thermal design, composed of a set of E-glass/epoxy structural members, with each volume filled with 25 to 32 mm of 15 to 20 kg/m³ monolithic silica aerogel. Due to the fact that the used aerogel was translucent, a gold-coated 5 mil Kapton film was placed in the middle of the aerogel insulation. For the insulation of cable tunnels polyurethane foam was used.5,6 Both Mars rovers MER-A and MER-B, also known as Spirit and Opportunity, relied on a thermal insulation similar to the one of the Sojourner rover, improving passive thermal control by using carbon-opacified aerogel of 20 to 25 mm thickness.7 For the MSL, also known as Curiosity, a passive thermal control relying on 1 inch of Martian atmosphere, also known as gas gap, was found suitable with huge benefits for weight and cost.8 But for the majority of the thermal control of the rover during surface operations a mechanically pumped fluid loop is utilized. The main impetus behind this is to use, as far as possible, the waste heat from the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) to provide heat to the rover in cold conditions.9 The combination of the RTG waste heat and the fluid loop greatly simplifies the rover thermal design in terms of the level of thermal insulation required to maintain the rover and payload at allowable temperatures during cold conditions.9 The Mars rover planned by JAXA has a gas gap between the component panel and external panels of approximately 60 mm as the baseline, wherein a gas gap separation layer is also inserted.10 C. Reason for a Novel Thermal Insulation for Mars Surface Missions Over the course of previous Mars surface missions a development of thermal insulation from foams and fibrous materials to aerogels, fumed silica and gas gaps is observable. These developments lead to improved thermal performance, but at the same time, made thermal insulation solutions more bulky, less flexible, less adaptable and changed its nature into a structural subsystem. Therefore a novel thermal insulation has been developed, that delivers good thermal performance without the drawbacks of currently known solutions. The developed thermal insulation offers optimal thermal performance but still is of light weight, flexible, able to be applied directly on the lander/rover external/internal walls, fitted to an electronic box or instrument, wrapped around electrical cables or applied to mechanisms. Therefore ESA initiated a study with the objective to develop and characterise high efficiency thermal insulations suitable for Mars surface missions. RUAG Space identified and characterized novel potential insulation materials, developed adequate concepts and designs for thermal insulation utilizing novel materials and validated the thermal performance of application oriented demonstrators in a representative environment. 3 International Conference on Environmental Systems II. Development program The development of a novel thermal insulation system for Mars surface Identification of missions followed a multistep approach starting with a literature research potential materials leading to material