Technical Paper
Thermal Assessment of Swift Instrument Module Thermal Control System during First 2.5 Years in Flight
2007-07-09
2007-01-3083
On Day 97, 2005, a temperature excursion of the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) loop heat pipe (LHP) #1 compensation chamber (CC) caused this LHP shut down. It had no impact on the Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) detection because LHP #0 was nominal. After LHP #1 was started up and its primary heat controller was disabled on Day 98, both LHPs have been nominal. On Day 337, 2004, the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) thermo-electric cooler (TEC) power supply (PS) suffered a single point failure. The charge-coupled device (CCD) has been cooled by the radiator passively to -50°C or colder most of the time. The CCD temperature meets the main objective of pinpointing GRB afterglow positions. With these anomalies overcome, the Instrument Module (IM) thermal control system (TCS) is nominal during the first 2.5 years in flight.