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MIXS (Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer) is an instrument in the remote sensing suite of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), part of the Bepi-Colombo mission to Mercury. The optics for the MIXS instrument is funded by the European Space Agency. The development of the MIXS instrument is undertaken by an international consortium, led by the University of Leicester, UK. This is funded by the UK's Science & Technology Facilities Council. The instrument is intended to address scientific issues including: the origin of Mercury, the evolution of Mercury, the nature of surface modifications on Mercury (e.g. cratering, volcanism), There are two adjacent X-ray optics, each with different layouts, for the imaging telescope and an adjacent flux-collector (collimator). Accurate thermal and geometrical mathematical models were needed to model the optics, taking into account the extreme thermal environment around Mercury.

Envisat is the largest and most ambitious earth observation spacecraft in the history of European space exploration. The Envisat spacecraft is funded by the European Space Agency, ESA, and was designed and built by Astrium. It carries a unique combination of instruments and sensors to make scientific measurements of our planet. Among the wide range of information being gathered, Envisat is looking at clouds, atmospheric temperature and composition, land temperature and topography, vegetation, flooding and fires, sea temperature and currents, global circulation, pollution and traffic, sea ice mapping and movement. Its total range of capabilities represents a significant advance over the previous generation of Earth observation spacecraft. Envisat was launched on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle on March 1st 2002, and flies in a sun-synchronous near polar obit at an inclination of 98° and an altitude of 800km, providing an orbital period of 101 minutes with a repeat cycle of 35 days.

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 Envisat spacecraft has a launch mass greater than 8.0 tonnes and external dimensions of 10.0 metres x 2.8 metres x 2.1 metres. Due to it’s large size, it was necessary to perform the thermal balance and thermal vacuum testing in two stages. Firstly, there was the testing of the Service Module and, secondly, the testing of the Payload Module (PLM). This paper discusses the thermal balance testing of the PLM. The PLM, itself, is 7.5 metres tall; too large to fit into a test facility solar beam. Originally, it was intended to conduct two solar beam tests; one for the upper part and the second for the lower part. Following a revision and re-scheduling within the programme, it was decided to perform a single, non-solar beam, thermal balance test. The thermal balance test would be performed using test specific, electrical, heaters and test facility shroud control.

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.