In the frame of the HERMES re-orientation activities, a set of studies has been started to define the most suitable scenario for a Man Transportation System (MTS).
The possibility to use a non-winged vehicle to cope with different missions and requirements has been widely investigated, in a competitive study lead by Alenia Spazio as System responsible and performed in collaboration with Dassault Aviation. The study has concentrated first on the selection, from a large number of candidate shapes, of 2 promising vehicle concepts, one in the family of blunt bodies and one in the family of slender bodies. Then the design of the two selected shapes and the assessments of their expected performances have been investigated in greater detail in order to consolidate and validate the conclusions of the trade-offs performed during the first part of the study.
This paper focuses on the thermal control issues of the two selected vehicle shapes. In particular, the following aspects are discussed:
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implications of the high thermal fluxes encountered by both vehicles during atmospheric re-entry
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implementation of the Fail Operational/Fail Safe requirement by means of an asymmetrical architecture of the Active Thermal Control Section of the Thermal Control Subsystem (TCS)
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interrelationships between the selected TCS architecture and the architecture of the on-board electrical/electronic subsystems (namely the avionics and the Electrical Power Supply subsystem) and relevant operational implications.
Finally, the envisaged architecture of the Environmental Control and Life Support Subsystem (ECLSS) is presented.