Prototype solar panel development and testing for a Mercury Orbiter spacecraft

Ercol, Carl J.; Jenkins, J.; Dakermanji, G.; Santo, A.; Mason, Lee S.

doi:10.2514/6.2000-2881

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…At that point the approach for both the spacecraft and instruments was firm, the planned launch targeted an optimized March 2004 window (Yen, 2001;McAdams et al, 2002), and backup launches in May 2004 and July to August 2004 were identified. The overall spacecraft concept and all subsystems were designed (e.g., Ercol and Santo, 1999;Ercol et al, 2000;Persons et al, 2000;Wallis and Cheng, 2001;Vaughan et al, 2001;Dakermanji et al, 2002;Krupiarz et al, 2002;Nhan et al, 2002;Conde et al, 2002;Ling et al, 2002;Moore, 2002;OÕShaughnessy and Vaughan, 2003;Krupiarz, 2003; Stilwell et al, 2003;Stratton et al, 2003;Hauck and Finnigan, 2003;Heiligman et al, 2003).…”

Section: Design and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: Development history and early mission status

McNutt

Solomon

Gold

et al. 2006

Advances in Space Research

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Section: Design and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: Development history and early mission status

McNutt

Solomon

Gold

et al. 2006

Advances in Space Research

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“…It was decided early in development that the system-level thermal vacuum test would be done at GSFC in a nonsolar simulator environment. Specialized solar simulation testing of engineering model solar arrays, Digital Sun Sensor Heads (DSSHs), radio frequency (RF) antennas, solar monitor, and sunshade were performed at the Glenn Research Center (GRC) Tank 6 thermal-vacuum chamber (Ercol et al 2000). Originally designed to simulate near-Earth solar conditions for the Solar Dynamic Power Experiment, the original test setup was modified to produce an 11-Sun equivalent solar environment over approximately 1.5 m 2 .…”

Section: Thermal Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

The MESSENGER Spacecraft

et al. 2007

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The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MES-SENGER) spacecraft was designed and constructed to withstand the harsh environments associated with achieving and operating in Mercury orbit. The system can be divided into eight subsystems: structures and mechanisms (e.g., the composite core structure, aluminum launch vehicle adapter, and deployables), propulsion (e.g., the state-of-the-art titanium fuel tanks, thruster modules, and associated plumbing), thermal (e.g., the ceramic-cloth sunshade, heaters, and radiators), power (e.g., solar arrays, battery, and controlling electronics), avionics (e.g., the processors, solid-state recorder, and data handling electronics), software (e.g., processor-supported code that performs commanding, data handling, and spacecraft control), guidance and control (e.g., attitude sensors including star cameras and Sun sensors integrated with controllers including reaction wheels), radio frequency telecommunications (e.g., the spacecraft antenna suites and supporting electronics), and payload (e.g., the science instruments and supporting processors). This system architecture went through an extensive (nearly four-year) development and testing effort that provided the team with confidence that all mission goals will be achieved.

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“…The geometry of the orbit about Mercury was also chosen to limit the worst-case exposure conditions. The solar panels are necessarily exposed to the Sun throughout the mission and were specially designed to handle the temperatures and solar input flux expected at 0.3 AU [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MESSENGER Heritage: High Temperature Technologies for Inner Solar System Spacecraft

Ercol

2007

AIAA SPACE 2007 Conference &Amp; Exposition

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Spacecraft missions to the inner solar system require specialized thermal protection and designs to withstand the intense heat associated with proximity to the Sun. The MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft, designed, built, and tested by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, was launched on August 2, 2004, on a mission to orbit the planet Mercury for one year. High-temperature technology and specialized thermal designs were developed for MESSENGER's telecommunications, power, guidance and control, and thermal control subsystems. MESSENGER milestones in these as areas may be applicable to such future missions as Solar Sentinels, Solar Orbiter, and BepiColombo.

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Prototype solar panel development and testing for a Mercury Orbiter spacecraft

Cited by 13 publications

References 2 publications

The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: Development history and early mission status

The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: Development history and early mission status

The MESSENGER Spacecraft

MESSENGER Heritage: High Temperature Technologies for Inner Solar System Spacecraft

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