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ATI's Spacecraft Thermal Control course

Summary:

    This is a fast paced two-day course for system engineers and managers with an interest in improving their understanding of spacecraft thermal design. All phases of thermal design analysis are covered in enough depth to give a deeper understanding of the design process and of the materials used in thermal design. Program managers and systems engineers will also benefit from the bigger picture information and tradeoff issues.

    The goal is to have the student come away from this course with an understanding of how analysis, design, thermal devices, thermal testing and the interactions of thermal design with the overall system design fit into the overall picture of satellite design. Case studies and lessons learned illustrate the importance of thermal design and the current state of the art.
    View course sampler

Instructor:

    Douglas Mehoke is the Assistant Group Supervisor and Technology Manager for the Mechanical System Group in the Space Department at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He has worked in the field of spacecraft and instrument thermal design for 30 years, and has a wide background in the fields of heat transfer and fluid mechanics. He has been the lead thermal engineer on a variety spacecraft and scientific instruments, including MSX, CONTOUR, and New Horizons. He is presently the Technical Lead for the development of the Solar Probe Plus Thermal Protection System.

    Contact this instructor (please mention course name in the subject line)

What You Will Learn:

  • How requirements are defined.
  • Why thermal design cannot be purchased off the shelf.
  • How to test thermal systems.
  • Basic conduction and radiation analysis.
  • Overall thermal analysis methods.
  • Computer calculations for thermal design.
  • How to choose thermal control surfaces.
  • When to use active devices.
  • How the thermal system interacts with other systems.
  • How to apply thermal devices.

Course Outline:

  1. The Role of Thermal Control. Requirements, Constraints, Regimes of thermal control.

  2. The basics of Thermal Analysis, conduction, radiation, Energy balance, Numerical analysis, The solar spectrum.

  3. Overall Thermal Analysis. Orbital mechanics for thermal engineers, Basic orbital energy balance.

  4. Model Building. How to choose the nodal structure, how to calculate the conductors capacitors and Radfacs, Use of the computer.

  5. System Interactions. Power, Attitude and Thermal system interactions, other system considerations.

  6. Thermal Control Surfaces. Availability, Factors in choosing, Stability, Environmental factors.

  7. Thermal control Devices. Heatpipes, MLI, Louvers, Heaters, Phase change devices, Radiators.

  8. Thermal Design Procedure. Basic design procedure, Choosing radiator locations, When to use heat pipes, When to use louvers, Where to use MLI, When to use Phase change, When to use heaters.

  9. Thermal Testing. Thermal requirements, basic analysis techniques, the thermal design process, thermal control materials and devices, and thermal vacuum testing.

  10. Case Studies. The key topics and tradeoffs are illustrated by case studies for actual spacecraft and satellite thermal designs. Systems engineering implications.

Tuition:

    The for this two-day course is $990 per person at one of our scheduled public courses. Onsite pricing is available. Please call us at 410-956-8805 or send an email to ati@ATIcourses.com.