European Polar Platform ENVISAT-1 Mission: Thermal Design and Payload Thermal Accommodation

The European Polar Platform is a remote sensing satellite with the primary objective, in the ENVISAT-1 P/L configuration, to monitor and study the earth and its environment.

The platform thermal design is passive assisted by heaters. Externally mounted P/Ls are responsible for their-own thermal control and are required to be thermally decoupled from the platform. The P/L thermal design is largely dependent on their detectors required temperature and stability. A wide range of design solutions is found: Stirling cycle coolers, Peltier elements, passive radiant coolers, heat pipe radiators.

This paper describes the overall thermal design of the platform and the P/Ls, the principles of the selected ENVISAT-1 P/L accommodation, the relevant P/L to platform I/F design solutions and outlines the platform and P/Ls thermal verification logic.