In the dynamic realm of space missions, maintaining optimal temperatures for spacecraft components is pivotal for mission success.
🔥 The Challenge: Thermal Cycles in Space :
During a mission, a spacecraft undergoes significant thermal cycles. However, crucial hardware components, like batteries and transmitters, operate within a narrower temperature range. This necessitates the development of a Thermal Management System (TMS) to regulate the spacecraft's temperature throughout the mission.
🌌 The Solution: Multilayered Selective Wavelength and Temperature-Modulated Radiative Coatings :
That proposal focuses on innovative coatings designed to control radiative heat transfer between the spacecraft and its environment. Enter selective wavelength and temperature-modulated multilayered coatings, offering a game-changing approach to thermal regulation.
🌈 How It Works: Dynamic Thermal Emissivity:
If the spacecraft temperature rises, the coating aids in temperature reduction by enhancing thermal emission selectively in the mid-infrared. Conversely, in low temperatures, a highly reflective coating prevents further temperature drops by minimizing thermal losses. This dual-functionality provides a dynamically modulated thermal emissivity for improved thermal control.
🌐 Materials Magic: Transition Chromic Material and Beyond :
The temperature modulation is achieved through the incorporation of a thermochromic transition material, vanadium dioxide. While a Fabry-Pérot resonance cavity currently ensures wavelength selectivity, we explore alternative structures like nanoparticle layers, networks, and nanopillars. Tuneable materials such as graphene will also be investigated for their potential contributions.
🛠️ Fourfold Approach: Coating Design, Sample Fabrication, Metrology Development, and Device-Level Testing :
The multifaceted proposal spans coating design, sample fabrication, metrology development, and device-level testing. A comprehensive methodology has been established to analyze and optimize these radiative coatings, integrating thermochromic transition materials. We've already defined a robust methodology, leveraging it to model the radiative properties of preliminary structures.
🔬 Towards the Future: Advancing NASA's Exploration Missions
This research aligns with NASA's space technology roadmap TA14.2, aiming to significantly advance the capabilities of exploratory missions. As we progress, we'll manufacture, characterize, system-test, and iteratively enhance variable emissivity coatings, pushing the boundaries of space exploration.
🌐 We will standardise, validate with the flight data and fully automate this process, and make it accessible to the entire space thermal engineers’ community via our Digital Engineer® Try it now
Share
Author
