An Additively Manufactured Deployable Radiator with Oscillating Heat Pipes (AMDROHP) to Enable High Power Lunar CubeSats (AMDROHP)

This NASA-California State University Los Angeles cooperative agreement aimed to develop an Additively Manufactured Deployable Radiator with Oscillating Heat Pipes (AMDROHP) capable of dissipating 50 W in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for in a CubeSat platform form factor. Objectives of the technology was to demonstrate an effective thermal conductivity of 5,000 W/m/K using flexible oscillating heat pipe (OHP) joints with thermal conductance of more than 6 W/K that can fit in a standard CubeSat package, as well as develop a corresponding mission concept in conjunction with the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (CalPoly SLO) that could demonstrate the technology in space. In cooperation with JPL, the team developed and pioneered new aluminum Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes that could enable such thermal performances, leading to a 3U-form factor AMDROHP payload prototype. The team also developed a cost-effective mission concept with CalPoly SLO that was subsequently awarded a launch slot by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) to demonstrate the AMDROHP on a 3U free flyer in Low Earth Orbit.

This design would allow a deployable radiator to operate at higher and more isothermal temperatures than the current State-of-the-Art (SoA) in thermal heat dissipation. If the desired performance is achieved, it would represent a 30-fold improvement in thermal conductance over thermal straps, which is common across the CubeSat industry. The Additive Manufacture (AM) nature of the technology is key to the innovation here, as it would allow high performance thermal solutions to be customized and “3D printed” for the use-cases on timeframes much faster than usual spacecraft mission timelines, allowing for both higher performance and faster mission design turnaround times.

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