A Summary of the Cassini System-Level Thermal Balance Test: Science Instruments

The Cassini spacecraft, NASA's mission to investigate the Saturn system, has undergone a system-level thermal balance test program to permit verification of the science instrument thermal designs in the simulated worst-case environments. Additionally, other objectives such as functional checkou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:SAE transactions 1997-01, Vol.106, p.954-966
Main Authors: Tsuyuki, Glenn T., Mireles, Virgil, Lin, Edward I., Avila, Arturo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aircraft
Design engineering
Heaters
Instrument design
Lamps
Magnetometers
Radiators
Saturn
Spacecraft
Sun
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Summary:The Cassini spacecraft, NASA's mission to investigate the Saturn system, has undergone a system-level thermal balance test program to permit verification of the science instrument thermal designs in the simulated worst-case environments. Additionally, other objectives such as functional checkout, collection of thermal data for analytical model adjustment, and flight temperature transducer verification were also attained. In the interest of cost and schedule, transient off-sunpoint conditions were not tested. The test demonstrated that the required system resources such as heater power and radiator area were adequate. In the instance of the Cosmic Dust Analyzer, allowable flight temperature limits were violated, but this problem is being addressed without a significant impact to system resources or thermal design robustness. Finally, the thermal acceptability of a black Kapton "sock" was demonstrated for the magnetometer boom.
ISSN:0096-736X
2577-1531