Use of Carbon/Carbon as a Thermal Doubler

For the ESA Polar Platform, the Payload Module on which the payloads are mounted comprises carbon fibre panels to meet the exacting pointing requirements. Electronics units are mounted on the inside of the payload module and require thermal doublers

To meet the thermal and structural requirements for the doublers, carbon/carbon material, similar to that used for aircraft and racing car brakes, was developed for use in a space environment.

This paper discusses the manufacture and development of a carbon/carbon material, the machining problems encountered, the development of bonding and sealing processes and examines the thermal performance during thermal balance testing of the payload module.