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The Earth Explorer Missions are part of the Earth Observation Envelope Programme (EOEP). They are small missions led and funded by the European Space Agency to cover primary research objectives. The SWARM Mission has been approved for implementation as the fifth Earth Explorer Mission. The prime contractor for the SWARM project is Astrium Germany and the platform contractor is Astrium UK. The mission consists of three spacecraft which will accurately monitor the variations in the Earth's magnetic field. This leads to constraints, for the Thermal Control Sub-System, on the selection of thermal finishes and in the selection of heater mats. The thermal finishes must not impinge on the local magnetic field, so as to change the measurements being taken. Similarly, current flowing in heater circuits must not provide a net magnetic field. These requirements present difficult challenges for the thermal design.

Beagle 2 is the British led Martian Lander which will be transported to Mars by the Mars Express spacecraft, due for launch in 2003. The Beagle2 Gas Analysis Package (GAP) is designed to analyse samples of the Martian soil and atmosphere collected by the Beagle2 lander equipment, for evidence of the chemical signatures of the biological processes associated with life. The GAP has been designed to process complex gas mixtures obtained both from the Martian atmosphere and as a result of thermal (pyrolysis) and chemical (combustion and fluorination) processing of solid samples within the Sample Handling and Distribution System (SHADS). The temperature requirement within the heated section of the chemical reactors is upward of 1000°C. However there is a need to maintain the external surface of the reactor at a low temperature, so as not to have adverse effects on others parts of the equipment.

The ROSETTA mission is a European Space Agency spacecraft which will rendezvous with the comet Wirtanen. The spacecraft will deploy a Surface Science Package (SSP) to land on the comet. The spacecraft will continue to orbit the comet for the following 2 years, which will allow other experiments to be performed to study the evolution of the comet processes as a function of heliocentric distance. The spacecraft will use planetary gravity assists to gain enough energy for a rendezvous with the comet. The spacecraft will be at distances ranging from 0.9 Astronomical Units (AU) to 5.25 AU, with long periods of hibernation. The power for the mission is supplied by two Solar Arrays. This means that the available power at 5.25 AU is 3.6% of that at 1.0 AU. Thus, the heater power demand at 5.25 AU has to be low, when the spacecraft is in Deep Space Hibernation mode. Prior to the comet rendezvous, the spacecraft is woken up.