Autonomous Heat Control Device For Spacecraft

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Small Business Innovation Research
Autonomous Heat Control Device For Spacecraft
Starsys Research Corporation
Boulder, CO

• INNOVATION
• Paraffin switches for heat control that provide
• thermal management without external power
• ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Several heat control switch designs developed
• Switches can provide varied degrees of heat
  transfer from payload to heat sink, resulting in
  precise temperature control
• Paraffin switch designs require no external power
  and involve no mechanical moving parts
• COMMERCIALIZATION
• Flight demonstration on NASA ProSED Mission
  should open door to future spacecraft
  applications

Heat Switch Will Provide Heat Control for
Instrument Package at End of Tether on ProSED
Mission

• GOVERNMENT/ SCIENCE APPLICATIONS
• Selected by University of Michigan for instrument
  package being built for NASA ProSED experiment
• Heat control switch will control temperature of
  instrument package at end of tether (instrument
  package monitors performance of tether used to
  accelerate rocket second stage reentry to the
  atmosphere)

1994 Phase II NAS7-1404 NASA/JPL Contact -
Robert Chave Company Contact - Kurt Lankford
Jet Propulsion Laboratory Success Story 7-018