Thermal Design of the Lunar Exploring Spacecraft

The thermal design of the LUNAR-A spacecraft, investigating the internal structure of the moon, is a challenge due to the widely varying thermal environments. A passive thermal control philosophy of radiators, multilayer insulation (MLI) and heaters was used for the LUNAR-A thermal design. Verification of the design was performed separately for the major spacecraft modules which consisted of a main structure, a propulsion subsystem and penetrators. As consequence, acceptable thermal performance can be expected for all phases of the mission. This paper describes the thermal design, analysis, thermal model testing and in-orbit temperature predictions.