Development of a Capillary Pumped Loop with High Pumping Effect and Active Regulation

The capillary pumped loop permits to solve one of the problems of the three axis stabilised satellite: the thermal control of dissipating equipment functionally placed inside the satellite core or on the earth panel and which have to be connected to the North and South radiator panels.

This problem has been solved on previous programmes by heavy and non-flexible solutions (U shaped heat pipe networks for example), the capillary loop may offer the following advantages:

• on-ground test, at system level, without orientation constraints,
• possibility of active temperature control,
• easy integration in the satellite body.

But this new technology has to be investigated and some specific problems (starting phase for example) have to be solved before the implementation in an operational satellite.