COMPARISON OF FLIGHT TEMPERATURE DATA TO PREDICTIONS AND TEST DATA FOR THE TIMED SPACECRAFT

摘要

On December 7, 2001, the Thermosphere-Ionoshpere-Mesosphere-Engertics and Dynamics (TIMED) spacecraft was successfully placed in a 625 km, 74.1 degree inclination low earth circular orbit, with four scientific instruments on board. The TIMED spacecraft was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta II rocket. The TIMED spacecraft was a comanifested launch with the JASON spacecraft (TOPEX follow-on). The TIMED spacecraft was encapsulated in a Dual Payload Attach Fitting (DPAF), with the JASON spacecraft mounting to the top of the DPAF. All phases of the launch and insertion of the JASON and TIMED spacecrafts into their proper orbits were successful. The TIMED spacecraft has the subsystems on-board necessary to provide the instruments with the power, attitude control and thermal stability they require. The spacecraft sports an optical bench containing four single axis gimbaled telescopes, two star cameras and two GPS antennas. The spacecraft has a 50 Amp-Hour, 22-cell Nickel-Hydrogen battery, split into two halves placed on opposite sides of the spacecraft. The Ni-H battery was just one component on the TIMED spacecraft that required careful thermal control. Now that the TIMED spacecraft has been successfully launched and is living in orbit, the on-orbit temperature data can be analyzed and compared to pre-launch temperature predictions and test data. This paper will document the on-orbit performance of the TIMED spacecraft thermal control system.