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In space engineering, a thorough thermal analysis on a spacecraft is necessary to evaluate structural stresses, and above all thermoelastic displacements (e.g. instrument pointing). The main problem of such an analysis lies in the fact that thermal and mechanical engineers do not use the same software tools. Thermal loadcases on structural models are all the more difficult to obtain that models become more and more complex. Interpolating temperatures by hand is now tedious and an inaccurate task. MATRA MARCONI SPACE recently developed an original tool that can automatically interpolate a 3D temperature map. This tool, in the very near future, will make thermal and mechanical engineers work together without throwing back into questions their methodologies for solving this kind of problem.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is a European Space Agency (ESA) servicing and logistics transportation system for the periodic re-supply of the International Space Station (ISS). The ATV will be launched by Ariane 5 and will provide the following services to the ISS: refuelling of the ISS (transfer of fuel from ATV to the station), reboost of the ISS (increasing the station’s orbit altitude, using the ATV’s propulsion system), delivery of cargo such as compressed air, water and pressurised payloads to the station, destruction of waste from the station. The ATV is composed of the so-called Spacecraft (SC) and an Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC). The Spacecraft includes the propulsion, reboost and attitude control systems, the avionics and the solar generator system.

The main goal of the in-flight experience feedback is to improve the design of the next generation of satellites with regards to the current one. This experience is gained through detailed analysis of the telemetry data originated from the satellites currently under exploitation. The comparison between the in-flight performances and the initial predictions allows to reach some of the main following objectives: to improve the knowledge of the real in-orbit behaviour of the satellites and in particular of those issued from the same family, to update the specifications used for the design of the satellites, to validate and improve the simulation and prediction tools. This paper presents the analysis results obtained through SPOT1/2, ERS1, focused on thermal behaviour analysis.

The usual concern of an industrial company involved in a competition environment is to produce at lower cost and in shorter time while preserving a high quality standard. Because of this, particular attention must be paid to thermal analyses which in the space industry are very time and effort consuming tasks, and have been suffering for long of a lack of an efficient software analysis tool. This paper shows how an integrated thermal chain designed at the same time on the basis of operational tools and of the most recent hardware and software improvements can tackle this problem, opening new outlooks for thermal engineering for building innovative space systems.