The Capabilities of EURECA Thermal Control for Future Mission Scenarios

The European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) is the first European reusable experiment platform, which is scheduled to be transported in 1988 into orbit by NASA's Space Shuttle. EURECA is designed for five free-flying missions in a 500 km and 28.5° inclination orbit, each with a 6-month operational and a 3-month dormant phase. The capabilities of the baseline Thermal Control Subsystem design have been investigated for future missions with regard to extended lifetime as well as applying a purely passive design according to the mission requirement.

This paper describes the thermal concept for various EURECA missions expected to be realized in the near future. Moreover, a general outlook on future EURECA flights is presented. The work has been performed under the contract of the European Space Agency (ESA).