Just a week ago I had the pleasure of (finally) announcing the first space flight heritage (we could publicly disclose), of our Cu-Al Hybrid Copper Thermal Straps (CuTS®), and today I am thrilled to announce another groundbreaking mission has launched using our hybrids: ESA's Proba-3!
The Proba-3 launch this morning was performed by India's ISRO (Space Research Organization), and went off without a hitch (after a 1-day delay kept it from launching yesterday).
TAI provided the Copper-Aluminum Hybrid Copper Thermal Strap (CuTS®) products to the SENER Group that led the Proba-3 team, consisting of Redwire Space, Airbus Defence and Space (Spain), GMV Space and Defence and Spacebel, which encompasses a consortium of more than 29 companies from 17 different countries. The straps were required to transfer the waste heat generated from the reaction wheels from their base-plate, to the satellite’s structure. While there were thermally conductive vibration dampers on which the reaction wheels were mounted to, to attenuate the micro-vibration disturbances, the low thermal conductivity of the dampers’ elastomer was not enough to dispel the wheels’ heat (while also providing the necessary mechanical decoupling and additional vibration isolation). As a result, flexible thermal straps were needed, and SENER began working with TAI in the summer of 2021 to design, test, and manufacture the straps. Straps were then delivered in November of 2021.
Pictured: The dual-armed OFHC Cu cable and Al6061 end fitting strap design used on Proba-3 (installed images could not be shared).
The challenging performance requirements, however, are why SENER ultimately selected our Hybrid CuTS® products. The dual-armed straps were required to have:
- Deflection on all 3 axes (ruling out a sheet or foil-based solution, given the rather flat installation configuration).
- A mass limit of 300g (but target of less than 200g), and
- An end to end conductance of greater than 1.5 W/C at an average temp of 35C.
With our lightweight, high performance hybrid CuTS, TAI was able to meet and exceed all required performance requirements while coming in at a fraction of the mass goal (and at a fraction of the cost of graphite and graphene based thermal straps).
Proba-3 Mission: Studying our Sun
"Proba-3 is ESA’s first precision formation flying space mission. Its objective is to demonstrate the readiness of this technology, and at the same time using it to perform scientific observation of the Sun’s corona, in conditions never achieved until now.
Precise formation flying technology will allow positioning the two Proba-3 satellites with a relative position accuracy of millimetres and a pointing accuracy of thousandths of a degree.
The satellites will demonstrate the readiness of such technology by performing in orbit a set of typical formation flying operations:
- station-keeping at different relative distances (from 25 m up to 250 m);
- approaching and separating in precise formation without losing millimetre precision;
- repointing the formation as a virtual rigid body away from the Sun…
This will demonstrate that small independent platforms, easy to launch, can replace bulky structures, such as telescopes, and work as a single entity while achieving high performance.
Proba-3 will also perform scientific observations, taking images of the Sun’s corona through a coronagraph instrument placed in one of the spacecraft. Formation flying technology entails placing one of the two Proba-3 satellites in front of the instrument’s lens, thus blocking out the Sun’s disk and creating an artificial eclipse in flight. Doing this in space, at a distance of 150 m, will achieve unprecedented performance in coronagraphy and, therefore, will bring highly valuable scientific outcomes."
Content Credit: https://www.group.sener/en/project/proba-3-formation-flying-mission/
To learn more about the Proba-3 mission visit ESA's mission website here: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Proba_Missions/Proba-3_Mission3
The TAI Team would like to thank our friends at SENER and Airbus for their continued business and for allowing us to be a part of this historic mission. We look forward to working with you all again, and if anyone has any questions about our products, please feel free to contact us at any time.