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The backbone of the Attached Pressurized Module (APM) is the water cooling loop, which contributes to an optimized payload operation. Dedicated design means are proposed to allow an efficient use of this resource. In case of a Thermal Control System (TCS) failure a controlled run-down of individual payloads is possible to avoid critical situations like overheating due to heat soak back from a furnace. The TCS is flexible enough to allow short payload power peaks thus optimizing the resource allocation without violation of the thermal requirements regarding the temperature limits. The APM will be verified against generic thermal and environmental control requirements. The test and analytical verification effort on payload side is dependant whether the payload is a facility integrated in an International Standard Payload Rack (ISPR) or a smaller entity like a drawer as subset of a facility or a self-standing experiment.

The design of the Environmental Control System (ECS) of the COLUMBUS Attached Pressurized Module (APM) has lately undergone a series of major modifications. These were on one side due to the increased technical maturity of the program and on the other side due to the agreed common understanding amongst the three partners (NASA/ESA/NASDA) that some functions need to be considered at overall Space Station level and therefore their relevant implementation shall have an high level of commonality. A typical example was the introduction of a set of fire detection and suppression requirements which, being jointly applicable to the US, European and Japanese modules, led to significant modification of the APM internal architecture. The implementation of a similar design for the fire detection and suppression function ensures a unified approach for the safety management of the Space Station under emergency conditions related to these particular hazards.

The paper describes the thermal control and life support design and related system aspects of the COLUMBUS Free-Flyer. The specific requirements for the FreeFlyer thermal control and environmental control and life support are mainly driven by the particular performance to be provided in single mission phases by the overall operational life requirement of 30 years for the whole Free-Flyer flight configuration and the possibility for repair and maintenance in orbit by the different operating modes of the Resource Module as autonomous or composite configuration by the complex and partially different interfaces with HERMES and the Space Station Freedom. During the Resource Module exchange at the Space Station Freedom the Pressurized Module is deactivated and thermally controlled by a heater system supplied with power by the space station. After attachment of the new Resource Module the internal servicing will be performed.

COLUMBUS represents the European participation in the US Space Station (USSS). As a long term goal this program will provide a comprehensive autonomous European Space Station capability with the requisite in-orbit infrastructure.

Although the Shuttle cargo bay parking phase is only a transition phase for ESA's European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA), it can last long enough (up to five days) to be the determining factor for the spacecraft thermal design. Both the thermal behaviour of safety critical (e.g. avoidance of hydrazine freezing and subsequent thawing, which might cause rupture of lines and valves) and temperature sensitive items have to be determined under consideration of hot and cold conditions for EURECA. Because the configurations of the Shuttle co-payloads are not known at the present time, hot and cold locations of EURECA within the cargo bay were identified. The position of EURECA in the middle of an otherwise empty cargo bay was determined as the cold location, whereas a sandwiched position of EURECA between two co-payloads was identified as the hot location.

The First Spacelab Mission (FSLP) is a joint ESA/NASA mission and is scheduled to be flown in September 1983. The European complement of FSLP consists of user provided experiments, ESA provided Mission Peculiar Equipment (MPE), and Spacelab hardware. The thermal accommodation concept for the European experiments and the design of the thermal MPE is presented. The thermal analysis approach and results will also be discussed. For the thermal design, the use of Spacelab environmental control facilities is maximized. The instruments located inside the Spacelab module are thermally controlled entirely by baseline Spacelab facilities. Payload located on the pallet is cooled via a new freon cooling lopp layout, which deviates from Spacelab Environmental Control System (ECS) baseline and which is determined by specific payload requirements. In addition, the thermal insulation principle of the pallet mounted equipment is introduced.