Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (Glas) Loop Heat Pipes - An Eventful First Year On-Orbit NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Format:

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Grob, E., author.

Conference Name:

International Conference On Environmental Systems (2004-07-19 : Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 2004

Summary:

Goddard Space Flight Center's Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) is the sole scientific instrument on the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) that was launched on January 12, 2003 from Vandenberg AFB. A thermal control architecture based on propylene Loop Heat Pipe technology was developed to provide selectable/stable temperature control for the lasers and other electronics over the widely varying mission environment.Following a nominal LHP and instrument start-up, the mission was interrupted with the failure of the first laser after only 36 days of operation. During the 5-month failure investigation, the two GLAS LHPs and the electronics operated nominally, using heaters as a substitute for the laser heat load.Just prior to resuming the mission, following a seasonal spacecraft yaw maneuver, one of the LHPs deprimed and created a thermal runaway condition that resulted in an emergency shutdown of the GLAS instrument.This paper presents details of the LHP anomaly, the resulting investigation and recovery, along with on-orbit flight data during these critical events

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

2004-01-2558

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license