Heat pipes with variable thermal conductance property for space applications

The activities presented in this paper demonstrate a new approach to provide passive thermal control using heat pipes, as demonstrated on the electronic unit of DLR’s MASCOT lander, which embarked on the NEA sample return mission Hayabusa 2 (JAXA). The focus is on the development and testing of heat pipes with variable thermal conductance in a predetermined temperature range. These heat pipes act as thermal switches. Unlike standard gasloaded heat pipes and thermal-diode heat pipes construction of presented heat pipes does not include any additional elements. Copper heat pipes with metal fibrous wicks were chosen as baseline design. We obtained positive results by choosing the heat carrier and structural parameters of the wick (i.e., pore diameter, porosity, and permeability). The increase in the thermal conductivity of the heat pipes from 0.04 W/K to 2.1 W/K was observed in the temperature range between −20 °C and +55 °C. Moreover, the heat pipes transferred the predetermined power of not less than 10 W within the same temperature range. The heat pipes have been in flight since December 2014, and the supporting telemetry data were obtained in September 2015. The data showed the nominal operation of the thermal control system.