Heat Pump Centrifugal Compressor System for Spacecraft Cooling - Heat Pump Centrifugal Compressor System for Spacecraft Cooling

The payload of large telecom satellites is increasing. This leads to the high-power throughput from solar panels to the electronic payload. Except the power radiation through the antennas, all other loads lead to power losses within the satellite that have to be rejected to space via radiators. The state-of-the-art for thermal control within a high payload satellite is a mechanically pumped liquid loop transporting the heat losses to radiators - with the radiators operating at slightly lower temperatures than the heat sinks within the satellite. To increase the rejection capacity of the radiators without increasing the radiator surface, an increase of the radiator temperature is targeted, while keeping the heat sink temperature for the components within the satellite. For this temperature increase, a heat pump is required. As core part of the heat pump, a gas bearing centrifugal compressor (also called turbo compressor) is employed due to the space specific requirements for low weight and size, long lifetime, low vibration emission and oil-free operation. The aim of this project is the design, realization and ground testing of a gas bearing turbo compressor for such a heat pump system for spacecraft cooling.