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Technical Paper

Restoration of Full Power Capability on International Space Station Following Leak in the Radiator

1999-07-12
1999-01-1974
Recent Leonid meteor showers have rekindled general awareness that meteoroid/orbital debris (M/OD) will impact the International Space Station (ISS) hardware and may cause damage and disruption of service. Large surface areas, photovoltaic (PV) arrays and PV radiators, have a higher probability of such an impact. The power generation, storage, and distribution system on the ISS is a channelized system, such that a malfunction affects only one channel. At assembly complete configuration, the ISS consists of eight power channels, and a temporary loss of one channel can be easily accommodated. However, during early stages, the ISS consists of only one PV module, which has two power channels, and a loss of one channel results in a significant loss of capability. Each PV module is supported by a photovoltaic thermal control system (PV TCS), which consists of two independent recirculating cooling loops.
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