Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B64—AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
  • B64G—COSMONAUTICS; VEHICLES OR EQUIPMENT THEREFOR
  • B64G1/00—Cosmonautic vehicles
  • B64G1/22—Parts of, or equipment specially adapted for fitting in or to, cosmonautic vehicles
  • B64G1/46—Arrangements or adaptations of devices for control of environment or living conditions
  • B64G1/50—Arrangements or adaptations of devices for control of environment or living conditions for temperature control
  • B64G1/503—Radiator panels
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B64—AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
  • B64G—COSMONAUTICS; VEHICLES OR EQUIPMENT THEREFOR
  • B64G1/00—Cosmonautic vehicles
  • B64G1/22—Parts of, or equipment specially adapted for fitting in or to, cosmonautic vehicles
  • B64G1/222—Parts of, or equipment specially adapted for fitting in or to, cosmonautic vehicles for deploying structures between a stowed and deployed state
  • B64G1/2221—Parts of, or equipment specially adapted for fitting in or to, cosmonautic vehicles for deploying structures between a stowed and deployed state characterised by the manner of deployment
  • B64G1/2222—Folding
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B64—AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
  • B64G—COSMONAUTICS; VEHICLES OR EQUIPMENT THEREFOR
  • B64G1/00—Cosmonautic vehicles
  • B64G1/22—Parts of, or equipment specially adapted for fitting in or to, cosmonautic vehicles
  • B64G1/66—Arrangements or adaptations of apparatus or instruments, not otherwise provided for

Definitions

• the invention relates to space vehicles fitted with heat radiators intended to dissipate, towards the black space, the thermal energy generated on board the vehicle.
• It relates more particularly to space vehicles intended to constitute satellites placed in a geosynchronous orbit, and in particular in a geostationary orbit, stabilized so that a determined axis of the satellite remains directed towards the earth.
• the latter case is that of telecommunications satellites, which carry main antennas intended, when the satellite is stationary, to remain oriented in a pre -ise way towards an area of the earth.
• the electric power necessary for the payload of space vehicles, and in particular geostationary satellites is provided by one or more solar panels orientable around an axis in order to keep them pointed towards the sun.
• this axis of rotation of the solar panels known as the Y axis, is oriented north-south.
• geostationary satellites of this kind have a general constitution of the kind shown in FIG. 1.
• the body 10 of the satellite contains the propellant tanks, the payload, the equipment compartment and the on-board electronics.
• Three axes Z, Y and X linked to the satellite are intended to be oriented respectively towards the earth, in the north-south direction and in the east-west direction when the satellite is at position.
• the body of the satellite has a parallelepiped shape with north and south faces, a face oriented towards the earth and a face opposite to the earth, often called the rear face.
• the solar panels 12 are carried by the north and south faces and are orientable around the Y axis.
• the main telecommunication antennas 14 are mounted laterally on either side of the satellite, at a distance from the east and west faces (or from one of them only) in order to clear their transmission or reception lobe. These antennas main must remain precisely pointed towards the areas of the earth to be covered, because they have a narrow lobe.
• the body 10 carries low thrust nozzles 16, which can be supplied with propellants, some of which are placed at the end of the satellite opposite to the ground.
• these nozzles are supplemented by one or more plasma thrust members 18.
• the nozzles or generators generate, in operation, jets or "feathers" 20 and 22 of hot gas at high speed. The impact of these jets on surfaces causes undesirable torques, reduces the efficiency of the nozzles or ion generator and risks degrading the surfaces.
• fixed radiative surfaces 24 are provided on the north and south faces of the satellite and are thermally connected to the loads of the satellite which generate heat, for example by heat pipes.
• the increase in thermal power generated on recent high-power satellites makes the heat dissipation surface of fixed radiative surfaces insufficient. Consequently, satellites have been designed which also have deployable radiators, which are applied against the body of the satellite during launch and which are subsequently deployed, generally by tilting, to bring them in a north and / or south orientation). In particular, attempts have been made to produce configurations such that the radiators, in the deployed state, are not placed in the lobe of the main telecommunication antennas.
• the radiators 25 can be brought into a divergent configuration which substantially removes them from the impact of hot gases at high speed which risks damaging them.
• the present invention aims in particular to provide a spacecraft having an arrangement of deployable radiators avoiding at the same time masking the field of vision of the antenna or main telecommunication antennas, of interfering with the jet of the generator nozzles and of obstruct the field of vision of an omnidirectional antenna carried by the rear face of the spacecraft.
• the invention notably proposes a spacecraft having a body, at least one main telecommunication antenna having a determined orientation relative to the body, at least one omnidirectional antenna having a field of vision opposite that of the antennas main and at least one radiator deployable by tilting around a tilting axis linked to the body of the vehicle between a storage position where it is applied against the body and a deployed position, characterized in that said tilting axis is placed substantially in the plane of a face of the body which is parallel to the orientation of the axis of the field of vision of the omnidirectional antenna and to the faces (or to the face) carrying the main antenna, said tilting axis being placed so that the radiator can tilt at an angle close to 180 ° from a storage position where it is pressed against a face carrying a solar panel to a position where it extends end substantially in the plane of the face which brings it to the stored state.
• the spacecraft is a satellite having a body, at least one main telecommunication antenna carried by an east or west face, at least one omnidirectional antenna carried by a face opposite the earth and at least one radiator deployable by tilting around an axis linked to the body of the satellite between a storage position where it is applied against the north or south face of the body and a deployed position, characterized in that the said axis is placed substantially in the plane of the north or south face against which the stored radiator is applied and is placed so that the radiator rocks at an angle equal to or close to 180 ° from the storage position to a position where it extends east and west from the body, behind a main antenna.
• the tilt angle of the radiator will be between 140 and 180 °, but it is advantageous for the radiator or each radiator to extend substantially in the plane of the face which brings it to the stored state, ie is to say either orthogonal to the direction Y when it is deployed.
• each of the north and south faces will carry at least one or more generally two radiators.
• the pivoting axes of the radiators are parallel to the direction Z, the maximum length of the radiators making it possible to store them (except in the case of a radiator er! IêT ⁇ x ⁇ àr iê ⁇ Iiâbles-r ⁇ ne sur rautre) " " esMimITEe ⁇ àia width-du satellite in the X direction (east-west direction), width which is generally less than the length in the Z direction.
• the tilt axes substantially at 45 ° from the Z direction, it is possible to give the radiators an almost equal to the length of the satellite in the Z direction, provided that the deployment of the radiators for certain orientations of the solar panels is not controlled.
• FIG. 2 and 3 similar to Figure 1, are perspective views showing a possible arrangement of radiators according to the invention
• - Figure 4 is a plan view showing a north or south face of a satellite, with another arrangement of radiators according to the invention
• - Figure 5 is a view in the north-south direction showing the location of the radiators deployed, in the event of tilting around an oblique axis
• FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view of the mounting of a radiator according to FIG. 5.
• the satellite the basic architecture of which is shown in FIG. 2, where the elements corresponding to those of FIG. 1 have the same reference number, carries, in addition to the fixed radiative surfaces 24 of conventional constitution, four radiators 25. Two of these radiators are provided for tilting symmetrically about an axis 30 of direction Z, from a storage position where they are pressed against the north face to a deployed position where they are practically in the extension of this north face, behind the reflectors of the main antennas 14 so as not to interfere with the lobe of these antennas.
• the width W of these radiators is thus limited to that of the free location behind the antenna reflectors 14.
• the deployment mechanism can be of conventional constitution and for example be constituted by one or more springs which bring the radiator into a deployed position determined by a stop when a lock restraint is disarmed, for example pyrotechnically in response to a command from the ground.
• a second pair of radiators 25 is placed so as to come to feel substantially in the extension of the south face when they are deployed.
• the radiators deployed do not interfere with the lobe of the main antennas. They are also not placed in the jet of the nozzles 16 and the thrust generators 16 intended to operate when the satellite is already in its final orbit, while the radiators are deployed. Finally, as shown in FIG. 4, they also do not penetrate into the lobe ⁇ of the omnidirectional antennas 26, even for a solid angle which can slightly exceed 2 ⁇ steradians.
• the body of a telecommunication satellite is often split into a service module or "bus" 42 placed opposite the earth and a payload module 44 placed on the earth side.
• the assembly according to FIGS. 5 and 6 allows, for an appropriate dimension of the lugs connecting with the hinge, remove any obstruction from the service module during the stay on the transfer orbit.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Aviation & Aerospace Engineering (AREA)
• Remote Sensing (AREA)
• Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
• Environmental Sciences (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Toxicology (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Biodiversity & Conservation Biology (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Aerials With Secondary Devices (AREA)
• Details Of Aerials (AREA)
• Variable-Direction Aerials And Aerial Arrays (AREA)
• Photovoltaic Devices (AREA)

Priority Applications (5)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Related Child Applications (1)

Publications (1)

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ID=8871135

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (8)

Cited By (3)

Families Citing this family (16)

Citations (3)

Family Cites Families (2)

• 2002
  • 2002-01-02 FR FR0200006A patent/FR2834274B1/fr not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-12-18 CN CNB028266021A patent/CN1321860C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2002-12-18 EP EP02799822A patent/EP1461248B1/fr not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-12-18 DE DE60212709T patent/DE60212709T2/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-12-18 JP JP2003559862A patent/JP4317456B2/ja not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-12-18 AU AU2002364459A patent/AU2002364459A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2002-12-18 WO PCT/FR2002/004428 patent/WO2003059740A1/fr not_active Ceased
• 2004
  • 2004-06-18 US US10/871,934 patent/US7036772B2/en not_active Expired - Lifetime

Patent Citations (3)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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