Speaker
Description
The Ariel mission is part of ESA’s Cosmic Vision program and is dedicated to studying the composition and physical properties of exoplanets. Cooling of the ARIEL payload is achieved by a combination of active and passive systems which lower the telescope's temperature down to an isothermal environment below 60K. The passive cooling to cryogenic temperature ranges is achieved by high-efficiency thermal shielding in the shape of V-Grooves, which utilize the favorable thermal conditions of the L2 orbit. This presentation outlines the development and resulting thermal design of the V-Grooves, including their thermal control surfaces, thermal interfaces, temperature monitoring instrumentation and the thermal properties of their mechanical mounting structure. The design is strongly based on heritage of the Planck mission and key developments resulting from critical differences between the two missions are presented.