Speaker
Description
High heat-rejecting technology becomes increasingly necessary as communication capacity grows for the next generation of geostationary communication satellites. Engineering Test Satellite 9 (ETS-9) is being developed by JAXA to demonstrate bus technology for new high-throughput communication satellites and is scheduled to be launched in fiscal 2025.
The main technologies to be newly developed for the ETS-9 are high electrical power supplies, electric propulsion, and high heat rejecting technology. We have developed a deployable radiator (DPR) equipped with loop heat pipes (LHPs) and have completed qualification testing (QT). Since the DPR is equipped with a flexible heat transport device using LHP, it will unfold 180º after launch, efficiently dissipating heat from the satellite into space.
The qualification testing included a deployment test and performance evaluation of heat-rejecting capacity. In addition to the qualification tests, we conducted long-term operation tests using a breadboard model (BBM) and tests in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS) and confirmed the design’s high reliability. A long-term operation test using the LHP-BBM determined that no non-condensable gas (NCG) was generated after high-temperature operation for six years and four months, from the end of May 2017 to the end of May 2024.
In this workshop, we will discuss the results of the DPR qualification test, and provide an overview of the long-term operation testing using BBM.
