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NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Program will place large unmanned polar-orbiting spacecraft in low-earth orbit to support a variety of earth-observation missions. The EOS AM instrument set has two instruments requiring Capillary Pumped Heat Transport Systems (CPHTS) using Capillary Pumped Loop (CPL) technology for thermal accommodation. Significant development testing is required to retire CPHTS design risks early in the EOS program. The first phase of CPHTS development testing has been completed using a modified version of an existing Martin Marietta test bed, the Technology Demonstration Model (TDM). The EOS/TDM testing provided additional proof-of-concept testing for CPL operations and pushed the performance envelope of the TDM system in order to determine the limits of CPL system performance. In addition, the testing provides a database from which analysis methods can be validated. This paper summarizes the EOS/TDM test results.

NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Program will place a series of unmanned polar-orbiting spacecraft in low-earth orbit to support a variety of scientific and Earth-observing missions. The EOS AM spacecraft has a requirement for an advanced heat transportation system for thermal energy. A Capillary Pumped Heat Transportation System (CPHTS) using Capillary Pumped Loop (CPL) technology was selected to accommodate the instruments requiring advanced heat transport.

NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Program will place a series of unmanned polar-orbiting spacecraft in low-earth orbit to support a variety of scientific and Earth-observation missions. The EOS AM Spacecraft has two instruments requiring an advanced heat transport system for thermal accommodation. The need for advanced heat transport is primarily due to the relatively high power and tight temperature control requirements for these instruments, compounded by the dense instrument layout on the Spacecraft nadir deck which must accommodate restrictive instrument thermal and science fields-of-view. Advanced heat transport is recommended for those instruments that must have their waste heat collected and transported a significant distance to the cold side of the Spacecraft for rejection to space via a body-mounted radiator.