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2006-02-06
Active Space Technologies acts as consultant
for ESA's Education Office YES2 project
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The Center of Expertise
of the University of Patras, Greece (CoE Patras) is in charge
of the mechanical and thermal subsystems of YES2. Active
Space Technologies is consultant
in the definition of the thermal interfaces with the Russian
Foton M3, and in the thermal modelling and analysis.
The 2nd Young Engineers
Satellite (YES2) is a project of the ESA Educational Office,
where students from all over Europe develop an innovative
re-entry technology by using space tethers instead of conventional
propulsion methods. The YES2 Spacemail is trying to demonstrate
a brand new method for payload transportation from Space
to Earth and more specifically from the International
Space Station (ISS) to Earth. The mission is planned to
be launched in 2007 with the Russian scientific spacecraft
FOTON-M3.
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The goals of the project
are:
• to give students a motivating
technological & educational
experience;
• to demonstrate SpaceMail: return a small capsule
from space to Earth, using:
• a 30 km 5 kg wire (tether) rather
than a rocket engine, helping to
open the way for new, advanced
space applications;
• an ultra-light re-entry capsule
demonstrating novel heatshield
technologies and entering a new regime
of in-flight aerothermodynamics study.
The Russian Foton spacecraft
was created as an interface for 0G experiments. It was
designed and built by the Central Specialised Design Bureau of
the State Research and Production Space Rocket Centre (TsSKB-Progress)
and was first launched by a Soyuz-U launcher in 1985. The Foton
spacecraft consists of the descent module, a battery pack,
and an attitude and orbit control module.
The definition of the Foton-YES2 thermal interface and consequent
thermal analysis are of utter importance for the success of
the mission. While the design of YES2 spacecraft needs to enable
the dissipation of the high heat fluxes during
the mission, it has further to withstand ecclipse non-operation
phases. At the same time the strict thermal interfaces to Foton
and the structural design of YES2 have to be taken into consideration.
The role of Active Space Technologies is
to support YES2 CoE Patras in the trade-off analysis between
meeting the interface requirements and delivering an overall
good thermal performance of YES2.
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