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The ICETAS initiative from ESA aims to provide the European space community with: A framework for development and integration of software tools supporting the thermal design, analysis and verification process for space applications. Effective exchange of thermal analysis models and data. In phase 2 of ICETAS a consistent set of user requirements was formulated, derived from so-called Use Cases. The Use Cases give step-by-step descriptions of the interaction between the thermal engineer and the software system. ICETAS covers the thermal engineering process all the way from requirements analysis and conceptual design to test evaluation and flight support. The user requirements activity was followed by the definition of a complete, object-oriented information model (the Common Data Structure - CDS) capturing all data entities and associations needed in the discipline.

The exchange of models is one of the most serious problems currently encountered in the practice of spacecraft thermal analysis. Essentially, the problem originates in the diversity of computing environments that are used across different sites, and the consequent proliferation of native tool formats. Furthermore, increasing pressure to reduce the development's life cycle time has originated a growing interest in the so-called spacecraft concurrent engineering. In this context, the realisation of the interdependencies between different disciplines and the proper communication between them become critical issues. The use of a neutral format represents a step forward in addressing these problems. Such a means of communication is adopted by consensus. A neutral format is not directly tied to any specific tool and it is kept under stringent change control.

This paper reports on the first phase of the development of the STEP-based Thermal Analysis for Space Application Protocol (STEP-TAS AP), an initiative by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the French Space Agency (CNES). The activity responds to the industrial need to have a standard, quality means for the electronic exchange of thermal models between the various companies and organisations involved in space projects and also to improve the possibility to exchange data with tools of other engineering disciplines (notably CAD tools). The development is based on the use of STEP, which is the casual name for the ISO 10303 Standard for Exchange of Product Model Data. The following topics are highlighted: The production of a common description of the information exchange requirements in the space thermal analysis domain, based on work previously initiated by ESA and CNES.