Passive Set-Point Thermal Control Skin for Spacecraft

Current manned and unmanned spacecraft require sophisticated thermal control technologies to keep systems at temperatures within their proper operating range. Future manned and unmanned missions to the moon, mars, and other destinations will require new technologies to maintain spacecraft temperature near a set-point while under variable heat loads and thermal environments under increasingly stringent size, weight and power constraints. Passive components, such as coatings with variable emissivity, can greatly extend and expand NASA mission capabilities. Physical Sciences Inc. will develop a passive thermal control skin (TCS) with a constant emissivity from 8 C to 30 C and an infrared turndown ratio of greater than 8 between 8 C and -10 C. The TCS will control both the infrared emissivity as a function of thermal load while maintaining a low solar absorptivity at all radiator temperatures.