Speaker
Description
JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer) spacecraft will provide a thorough investigation of the Jupiter system in all its complexity with emphasis on the three potentially ocean-bearing Galilean satellites, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto, and their potential habitability. It will carry 10 state-of-the-art remote sensing, geophysical, and in situ instruments plus one experiment that uses the spacecraft telecommunication system with ground-based instruments.
The main design drivers of JUICE mission are the very harsh radiation in Jupiter environment, leading to shield individually or collectively all the sensitive components, the stringent Electro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) requirements to fulfil the magnetic and electrical fields’ measurement objectives and the low solar illumination received at Jupiter. This latter parameter drives both the size and technology of the solar arrays, and the thermal control, that is designed to cope with hot and cold environments. JUICE spacecraft thermal control has to cope with a large variation of external environment during the mission (Sun flux from 3300 W/m² in the inner Solar System down to 46 W/m² in Jovian environment) and long eclipses of up to 4.8 hours. Most of the instruments are thermally decoupled from the spacecraft and have to cope with such extreme environment variations but use as well Spacecraft resources such as heating power or, in some cases, thermally controlled cold fingers.
The presentation will focus on the thermal control of the different instruments principles and how the thermal interface between the sensors and the spacecraft is managed.
