14. Micro heat pipes for satellite thermal control - Cumã I
Period:
2001 / 2002
Description:
Heat pipes have been often used for spacecraft thermal control, in order to enable the functioning of electronic devices within their predefined temperature ranges. Electronic boards with micro heat pipes have been used in the electronic industry for thermal control of electronic devices, such as laptops and personal computers. The biggest accomplishment of this research lies not only in the micro-gravity test of a gravity-developed device, but also in the diffusion welding processes used in the heat spreader boards. A 100mm x 100mm wide, 2mm thick board was tested with 20 micro heat pipes in parallel. The heat spreading board will be made of a sandwich of thin copper plates and copper wires. The temperature distribution was measured and the data sent by telemetry. The data was also stored in an internal memory card for back up purposes.
Members:
Augusto José de Almeida Buschinelli
G. P. Peterson
Júlio César Passos
Kleber Vieira de Paiva
Marcia Barbosa Henriques Mantelli
Ricardo Nishioka Mor
Rubens Maribondo do Nascimento
Sergio Colle
Y. Wang
Funding:
Agência Espacial Brasileira - AEB (financial aid)
