Challenges on the Development of Thermal Control of the HERMES Spaceplane

The HERMES Spaceplane is being designed and developed by AEROSPATIALE for the European Space Agency (ESA). The Spaceplane is designed to transport three people and three metric tons of payload to a Space Station.

This paper describes the thermal control system for the HERMES Spaceplane. It is comprised of the outer thermal protection system, the internal passive thermal control system and an internal active thermal conditioning device, including and Environmental Control and life Support system (ECLS) and an Active Thermal Control System (ATCS). Different mission conditions including reentry, in-orbit and launch phases are described.