Search Results

The Equipped Avionics Bay of the Automated Transfer Vehicle is thermally controlled by means of ten Active Fluidic Cooling Units (AFCU), each of them being composed of four Variable Conductance Heat Pipes (VCHP). In spring 2002, a thermal test in vacuum chamber has been performed with one AFCU subsystem. The objectives were: To characterize the thermal behavior To tune the control architecture To validate the AFCU modeling This paper deals with the set-up, the means and the sequence implemented for this test and the main results obtained from test measurements and exploitation.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle will provide ISS with reboost and attitude control functions, and deliver water, gas, propellant and dry cargo. It is a 20 tons expendable vehicle launched by Ariane. It performs a rendezvous and docking with the Russian Segment. It remains attached up to 6 months before a destructive reentry. The energy management is one of the vehicle development key points. It is achieved through an original architecture coupling thermal control and power supply functions. This architecture has been developped and verified thanks to a specific tool, SAVEmgt, simulating both electrical and thermal vehicle behaviours.