Advancement of Multifunctional support structure technologies (AMFSST)

TL;DR

This paper discusses advancements in multifunctional support structures for spacecraft, integrating electronics, thermal management, and structural support to reduce size, weight, and cost, with a focus on thermal challenges and solutions for charge regulators.

Contribution

It presents new design approaches and thermal management solutions for MFSS, addressing key challenges in integrating electronics and thermal control in spacecraft structures.

Findings

Successful thermal material testing with high-conductivity CFRP

Thermal simulations indicating effective heat dissipation

Design concepts reducing spacecraft component size and weight

Abstract

The multifunctional support structure (MFSS) technology is promising a reduction of overall mass and packing volume for spacecraft (S/C) electronic components. This technology eliminates the electronic box chassis and the cabling between the boxes by integrating the electronics, thermal control and the structural support into one single element. The ultimate goal of the MFSS technology is to reduce size, weight, power consumption, cost and production time for future spacecraft components. The paper focus on the main challenges and solutions related to the thermal management within the MFSS technology based on the selected charge regulator (CR) application. Starting with the main set of thermal requirements for the CR the paper will include, conceptual and detailed design based on highconductivity carbon fibre CFRP, description and results of the thermal material sample test program ; parameter and results for the performed first thermal simulation