Modelling and Preliminary Prediction of Thermal Balance Test for COMS

Abstract

COMS (Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite) is a geostationary satellite and developed by KARI for communication, ocean and meteorological observations. It will be tested under vacuum and very low temperature conditions in order to verify thermal design of COMS. The test will be performed by using KARI large thermal vacuum chamber, which was developed by KARI, and the COMS will be the first flight satellite tested in this chamber. The purposes of thermal balance test are to correlate analytical model used for design evaluation and predicting temperatures, and to verify and adjust thermal control concept. KARI has plan to use heating plates to simulate space hot condition especially for radiator panels of satellite such as north and south panels. They will be controlled from 90 K to 273 K by circulating GN2 and LN2 alternatively according to the test phases, while the main shroud of the vacuum chamber will be under constant temperature, 90 K, during all thermal balance test. This paper presents thermal modelling including test chamber, heating plates and the satellite without solar array wing and Ka-band reflectors and discusses temperature prediction during thermal balance test.

Keywords

• COMS
• geostationary orbit
• thermal control
• thermal analysis
• thermal balance test
• thermal vacuum chamber