Description
Priority 2 activities will only be initiated upon the explicit request of at least one Delegation.
Objective:
The objective is to develop and test a Heat Pump System (HPS) compressor
Targeted Improvements:
A Heat Pump System-based thermal bus design will allow the realisation of a 20kW telecom spacecraft at lower cost compared to existing platform technologies.
Description:
Because of the increasing power demand of telecommunication payloads and high-density accommodation, the cooling requirements for these platforms is steadily increasing up to the point that conventional heat transfer technologies are no longer sufficient to cope with the requested heat rejection. In order to remain competitive in the current and future high-power commercial satellite market, it is essential to improve the efficiency of the thermal subsystem. In order to pursue this effort, it is proposed to develop and test (in a representative environment) a breadboard model of a compressor, a key component of a Heat Pump System.
Heat Pump Systems are devices based on the so called ‘reversed cycle’ and are commonly used in the heating and refrigeration industry. The vapor compression heat pump system includes an evaporator, a compressor, and an expansion valve coupled in a closed-loop manner to a radiator-condenser. State-of-the art of the terrestrial compressor technology provides good performance but needs to be adapted to space telecom missions requirements. Flexibility (variable compression ratio to allow scalability of the system) and optimization of the power consumption are also important.
At equivalent radiative surface area, the isentropic compression of an HPS based thermal bus permits higher temperature of the working fluid and leads to a higher rejection capability, suitable to meet the projected need of telecom satellites. The system allows also a higher flexibility in term of payload accommodation and possible coupling of the radiators.
The following work logic is foreseen:
- Technical requirements definition.
- Preliminary and detailed design of the compressor technology envisaged.
- Test plan definition (functional, environmental).
- Design and manufacturing of a test loop.
- Manufacturing and tests with functional tests of the compressor in the dedicated test loop.
- Functional and performance test of the compressor.
Procurement Policy:C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to EMITS news "Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and R&D entities in ESA programmes".