Speaker
Description
The Modular Infrared Molecules and Ices Sensor (MIRMIS), developed for ESA's
Comet Interceptor mission, underwent a dedicated thermal vacuum (TVAC) test
campaign at ESA/ESTEC. The campaign was performed in the Medium Vacuum
Facility (MEVAF) to characterize the instrument's thermal behavior and support the
correlation of its Thermal Mathematical Model (TMM). The MIRMIS STM was
subjected to cold and hot survival conditions, including different levels of simulated
solar illumination. Five representative steady-state cases were selected, using
temperature and survival-heater power measurements as test references.
A detailed thermal model of the MIRMIS instrument and the MEVAF test environment
was developed in ESATAN-TMS. The five TVAC cases were implemented as
independent thermal analyses and compared with the corresponding test measurements.
To automate the correlation process, a dedicated Python-based framework was
developed and coupled with TMM. The framework updates the correlation factors,
executes the thermal analyses, extracts the results, evaluates the correlation, and stores
the solutions throughout the iterative process.
A key feature is the parallel execution of the five TMM TVAC cases. This allows all
cases to be evaluated simultaneously, with the computational time of each iteration
mainly governed by the slowest case rather than the sum of their execution times.
MIRMIS was used as a representative test case to demonstrate the integration of TVAC
testing, detailed Thermal Mathematical modelling, and automated parallel correlation.
The developed approach reduces manual intervention while improving the efficiency,
repeatability, and traceability of thermal model correlation.