Bepicolombo MTM Thermal Balance/Thermal Vacuum Test
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48th International Conference on Environmental Systems ICES-2018-10 8-12 July 2018, Albuquerque, New Mexico BepiColombo MTM Thermal Balance/Thermal Vacuum Test B. Weinert, J. Schilke1 Airbus Defence and Space, Claude Dornierstraße, Friedrichshafen, Germany S. Tuttle2 Sigma Space Systems, Canberra, Autralia and Daniele Stramaccioni3 European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands The BepiColombo satellite is Europe's mission to Mercury. The mission consists of a spinning satellite “Mercury Magnetosphaeric Orbiter” (MMO) provided by JAXA and a 3 axis stabilized “Mercury Polar Orbiter” (MPO) provided by ESA. A dedicated “Mercury Transport Module” (MTM) provides the transfer from Earth to Mercury by means of solar electric propulsion. The Mission is led by Airbus Friedrichshafen who is has taken over thermal design responsibility from Airbus Stevenage. The MTM TB/TV test is performed with solar simulation up to 8SC in ESA’s large space simulator (LSS) in November 2017. Thermal balance test phases are conducted to verify mainly the heater layout and heat rejection capability of CPS elements (thrusters, pipes). The general thermal design has been already verified by a STM solar sim test performed in 2013. Thermal vacuum test phases include the functional verification of the ion thruster propulsion. This is achieved by activation of the high voltage on the acceleration grids and a separate release of Xenon. Stringent pressure requirements in the chamber and inside the S/C present a challenge to the execution of those test phases. This paper reports on the test performed. It includes test setup, modelling of the test setup and a quick evaluation of the test results. Nomenclature AU = Astronomical Unit BC = BepiColombo, name of the mission HP = Heat Pipe LSS = Large Space Simulator (TV chamber) MMO = Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter MPO = Mercury Planetary Orbiter MOSIF = Magnetospheric Orbiter Sunshade and Interface MTM = Mercury Transfer Module PFM = Proto-Flight Model RCS = Reaction Control System RCT = Reaction Control Thruster S/C = SpaceCraft SC = Solar Constant SEPT = Solar Electric Propulsion Thruster STM = Structural Thermal Model TAS-I = Thales Alenia Space Italia TCS = Thermal Control System TEC = Thermo-Electric Cooler (Peltier Element) UV = UltraViolet VDA = Vapor Deposited Aluminum αS = Solar Absorptance εIR = Infrared Emissivity 1 Thermal Systems Engineer, Airbus Defence and Space, Claude Dornierstraße, 88090, Friedrichshafen, Germany. 2 Manager, Sigma Space Systems, Canberra, 2905, A.C.T., Australia 3 Thermal Engineer, Mechanical Engineering Department, Keplerlaan 1, 2200AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands Copyright © 2018 J. Schilke, Airbus Defence & Space I. INTRODUCTION A. The Mission BepiColombo is Europe’s mission to planet Mercury. The mission consists of a Japanese spinning satellite “Mercury Magnetosphaeric Orbiter” (MMO) provided by JAXA and a 3 axis stabilized “Mercury Polar Orbiter” (MPO) provided by ESA. A dedicated “Mercury Transport Module” MMO (MTM) provides the transfer from Earth to Mercury. The Mission is lead by Astrium Friedrichshafen, with Thales Alenia Space Torino responsible for the MOSIF MPO and MOSIF thermal design. The S/C is lifted by an Ariane V rocket into a direct Earth escape. The trajectory from launch to MPO final orbit insertion at Mercury takes about 7 years and comprises several planet fly-bys for fuel saving: 1 at Earth, 2 at Venus and 6 at Mercury. Deceleration against the huge gravity of the sun is MTM done by solar electric propulsion located in a dedicated Mercury Transfer Module (MTM). During this transfer, the whole S/C is in a 3 axis stabilized sun oriented attitude, while the MPO in its final orbit is planet oriented. A sunshade for the MMO completes the Figure 1. Mercury Composite Spacecraft composed of Mercury composite spacecraft (MCS) stack. MTM, MPO and MMO inside its sunshade MOSIF. This paper addresses the TB/TV testing of the MTM. B. The Thermal Environment The thermal environment of the mission is extremely variable spanning between extremes never experienced by other ESA missions before. During the cruise phase the distance from the Sun spans from 1.16 AU to 0.298 AU giving rise to solar flux intensities from 1,015 W/m2 (0.74 SC) to 15,380 W/m2 (11.3 SC). The composite S/C will cruise with a very limited variation of the solar aspect angle and will experiences eclipses in correspondence of the various planet fly-bys (see Figure 2). Adequate ground testing of the MTM under its extreme thermal conditions represents another large challenge and there are certain aspects which simply cannot be tested. Figure 2. BepiColombo Cruise Trajectory 2 International Conference on Environmental Systems II. MTM THERMAL DESIGN The MTM, being the transfer module, is missing some elements of a selfstanding S/C. The onboard computer, star trackers, reaction wheels, transmission system are all located inside the planetary orbiter MPO. The MTM is limited to chemical propulsion for attitude control and small out of plane maneuvres, solar electric propulsion and the necessary power subsystem and a remote interface unit (RIU). Due to high sun intensity, the sun oriented face of the MTM is covered by high temperature MLI. Another side of the S/C is accommodating the ion engines, a third one is blocked by the MPO. The remaining 3 sides are used as radiators with 9m² total area to remove the dissipations mainly from PCDU and PPUs. When exposed to the 15.4kW/m² solar flux at 0.298AU, it must allow any two of its four ~5kW electric thrusters to run simultaneously, while maintaining internal temperatures suitable for the operation of 24 bi-propellant reaction control thrusters, internal electronic equipment with standard temperature ranges, thruster pointing mechanisms and a Xenon propulsion system, which amount to almost 2kW of dissipation. Figure 3. The main external features of the MTM’s thermal design Key features of the thermal design are: Sun shield and Skirt: the main sun shield consists of a double blanket arrangement of high temperature MLI, along with a rear cavity which enhances cooling of its inner region. More details of the MLI are reported in Ref.3. Along its lower edge it carries a skirt made of a specially white-coated titanium sheet. This improves the shading of the electric thrusters (in what is known as the “Engine Bay”) and reduces the temperatures behind the sun shield cavity. Radiators: the radiators are classical aluminium honeycomb panels painted white. They cover 3 sides of the MTM. The white paint is necessary as during loss of attitude the radiators could be exposed for several seconds to sun with 15.4kW/m² intensity. Tank Cut-Outs: the two side radiators have large cut-outs to aid the radiation of heat behind the sun shield to deep space, thereby keeping the tanks on the sun-side of the MTM within their temperature limits. Heat Pipe Network: for successful performance, the radiators rely on a good thermal contact being achieved between the horizontally-running surface heat pipes and the radiator panels on one side and the dissipating units on the other side. Vertically oriented heat pipes embedded in the radiators further spread the heat. Some surface heat pipes are extended to the anti- sun radiator, linking the side and rear radiator surfaces for increased area for heat rejection of the high dissipation of the PCDU. See Figure 4 and Figure 5. Also the sun exposed thrusters and sun sensors are Figure 4. Principle sketch of heat pipe network coupled to heat pipes transferring the absorbed heat to the side radiators. 3 International Conference on Environmental Systems Reaction Control Thrusters (RCTs): the MTM has 12 pairs of 10N thrusters. Four pairs are permanently sun- illuminated and some substantial measures were needed to avoid the onset of vapour lock at 0.3AU. This thermal design was already verified by thruster EQM, exposed to solar simulation and by a pair of EQM RCTs installed on MTM STM solar simulation test (see ref. 5). Solar Electric Propulsion System (SEPS): the MTM has 4 gridded ion electric thrusters (Figure 6 and Figure 7). These consume approximately 11kW of power and dissipate around 800W in their two processing units and lead to a further 750W of waste heat in the MTM’s Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit (PCDU). The SEPS includes various valves, pressure regulators and flow control units to regulate the Xenon flow from tanks to the ion thrusters. As the ion thrusters are kept in the shadow of the sun shield skirt, heat removal is relatively easy. SEPS Power Units: there are two of these Power Processing Units (PPUs) which provide power to the four electric thrusters. Each of them requires numerous heat pipes to distribute its waste heat. Thus, thermal contacts between those units and the heat pipes in these regions are important and must, therefore, be well instrumented in the thermal test to ensure good workmanship. Power Processing Unit (PCDU): this unit handles all of the power coming off the solar arrays (up to 20kW) and must distribute it to the MTM for electric propulsion and heating, to the MPO for all of its power needs and to the MMO for its heating. Its dissipation has a power density of around 5kW/m². Thus, the coupling to the heat pipes is critical in this area and must be confirmed by the testing. Tanks: the MTM carries 3 Xenon tanks with a capacity of 200kg each. Two are located on the sun side (+Y), one on the shadow side (-Y) to limit the CoG shift when the Xenon is consumed. Mainly for attitude control a hydrazine tank on -Y and an oxidizer tank on +Y complete the tank arrangement. Figure 5. MTM -X and -Y radiators with surface heat pipes 4 International Conference on Environmental Systems Figure 6. MTM sketch of +Z side CPS RCTs compartment SEPT SADM Flow Control Unit Remote Pressure Interface regulator Unit RCTs Figure 7.