Deployable radiators for waste heat dissipation from Shuttle payloads

Thermal control of Shuttle instruments will require the use of a pumped fluid space radiator system to reject large quantities of waste heat. Many payloads, however, will have insufficient vehicle surface area available for radiators to reject this waste heat and will, therefore, require the use of deployed panels. It is desirable to utilize modularized, deployable radiator systems which have a high degree of configuration and component commonality to minimize the design, development, and fabrication costs. Prototypes of two radiator systems which meet these criteria are currently under development for Shuttle payload utilization: a 'rigid' radiator system which utilizes aluminum honeycomb panels of the Shuttle Orbiter configuration that are deployed by an Apollo Telescope Mount type scissors mechanism; and two 'flexible' radiator systems which use panels constructed from flexible metal/dielectric composite materials that are deployed by 'unrolling' or 'extending' in orbit. Detailed descriptions of these deployable radiator systems, along with design and performance features, are presented.