Space-Based Heat Pumps for a Lunar Lander/Rover Thermal Control

The paper addresses the thermal control of a lunar lander/rover by use of heat pumps enabling payload heat to be rejected at a higher temperature to the lunar day environment.

The heat pump technologies considered include absorption, vapor compression, adsorption, hybrid and chemical heat pumps technologies.

A trade-off of the various heat pump technologies for a 2kW payload cooling capability is presented based on the needs of space-based hardware in terms of low mass and power, high performance, reliability and compactness of the systems.

Finally the selection of a novel variant of the chemical heat pump concept is presented as a promising technology to be further investigated through breadboard development.