Engineered Solar Reflective Coating with High Infrared Transparency

Thermal management is an enduring need for all space platforms and vehicles. Spacecraft are routinely exposed to extreme temperature fluctuations, and options for regulating temperature in the vacuum of space are limited and challenging. To address spacecraft temperature fluctuations, Plasmonics Inc. has been developing a new class of mission-tailorable, and autoregulating, thermal radiators. The primary limitation with Plasmonics Inc.’s current state of the art variable emissivity materials (VEM) is their high solar absorptivity. An ideal VEM surface should have low solar absorptivity, to help mitigate solar loading. The surface should also be conductive to help mitigate electrical charge build up. To address these needs, Plasmonics Inc proposes to develop a new-class of radiator overcoats for VEMs and other similar radiator systems with high solar reflectivity, infrared transparency, and high conductivity. The team has identified three candidate coating technologies which we will investigate. After downselect, the team will fabricate a coating prototype on silicon and verify the visible reflectance and infrared transparency. A successful coating will find utility in a wide range of markets with the commercial satellites and smart surfaces as the most promising.