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The requirements related to the thermal control of HERMES space-plane suggest the utilization of technical solutions based on active and passive techniques. The configuration of the space-vehicle with pressurized and unpressurized compartments presents a variety of different problems, which generally require dedicated solutions. The complex mission profile include atmospheric and orbital conditions, with several phases and modes of operation (free-flying and docked). The extremely wide range of environmental conditions, together with the timeline of internal power dissipations requires the adoption of a particularly flexible thermal control. The ATCS (Active Thermal Control Section) mainly relies on the capability of water and Freon 114 fluid cooling loops. They collect waste heat from the sources located inside the compartments and transport this power to the available rejection devices.

In the frame of the HERMES re-orientation activities, a set of studies has been started to define the most suitable scenario for a Man Transportation System (MTS). The possibility to use a non-winged vehicle to cope with different missions and requirements has been widely investigated, in a competitive study lead by Alenia Spazio as System responsible and performed in collaboration with Dassault Aviation. The study has concentrated first on the selection, from a large number of candidate shapes, of 2 promising vehicle concepts, one in the family of blunt bodies and one in the family of slender bodies. Then the design of the two selected shapes and the assessments of their expected performances have been investigated in greater detail in order to consolidate and validate the conclusions of the trade-offs performed during the first part of the study. This paper focuses on the thermal control issues of the two selected vehicle shapes.