Thermal Balance Testing of the European Robotic Arm Fokker Space B.V

Format:

Book

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Doornink, Jan, author.

Conference Name:

International Conference On Environmental Systems (2000-07-10 : Toulouse, France)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource cm

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 2000

Summary:

As part of the European contribution to the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), the European Robotic Arm (ERA) is designed under contract of the European Space Agency by Fokker Space as the Prime contractor. The particularly challenging aspect of the ERA thermal design is to enable ERA operation under all possible in-orbit thermal environmental conditions which are to be experienced throughout its 10 year life. These conditions can be between extreme cold without sunlight for hibernation to extreme hot with ERA operating in full sunlight in close vicinity to a large station item, for instance, the solar arrays.First a short description of the ERA system is given with a summary of the main thermal design features. The system level thermal balance test on the ERA Engineering Qualification Model (EQM) is intended to validate the system level thermal model, which consists of the subsystem thermal models as supplied by the respective subcontractors. In addition the thermal models of the Limbs and the Joints were validated during this test.The ERA EQM TB test has been performed at the Large Space Simulator (LSS) facilities at ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands and took about 12 days pure testing.The configuration of the test item together with the thermal adapter used in the LSS are discussed.The thermal balance test consisted of the following phases:The test item was equipped with 370 thermocouples to monitor the internal and external temperatures.The test itself and the subsequent thermal model correlation activities are discussed. Conclusions and recommendations for the conducting of this type of test are highlighted

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

2000-01-2496

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license