Performance Testing of an Advanced Lightweight Freezable Radiator 2006-01-2232
During extravehicular activities (EVAs) it is crucial to keep the astronaut comfortable. Currently, a sublimator rejects to space both the astronaut's metabolic heat and that produced by the Portable Life Support System. In doing so, it consumes up to 3.6 kg (8 lbm) of water; the single largest expendable during an eight-hour EVA. While acceptable for low earth orbit, resupply for moon and interplanetary missions will be too costly. Fortunately, the amount of water consumed can be greatly reduced if most of the heat load is radiated to space. However, the radiator must reject heat at the same rate that it is generated to prevent heat stroke or frostbite. Herein, we report on a freezable radiator and heat exchanger to proportionally control the heat rejection rate.
Citation: Nabity, J., Copeland, R., Mason, G., Libberton, K. et al., "Performance Testing of an Advanced Lightweight Freezable Radiator," SAE Technical Paper 2006-01-2232, 2006, https://doi.org/10.4271/2006-01-2232. Download Citation
Author(s):
James Nabity, Robert Copeland, Georgia Mason, Kerry Libberton, Heather Paul, Luis Trevino, Ryan Stephan
Affiliated:
NASA Johnson Space Center
Pages: 11
Event:
International Conference On Environmental Systems
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Related Topics:
Life support systems
Radiators
Heat exchangers
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