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This paper presents the design, test, and flight performance of the Astro Integrated Radiator System, or IRS, a passive thermal control system which made its second Space Shuttle flight during March, 1995. The system was designed to provide thermal control for a cluster of ultraviolet telescopes which were mounted to an Instrument Pointing System (IPS) developed by the European Space Agency. Having no fluid piped to the payload over the gimbals of the IPS to provide heat transport, the thermal control of the telescopes and their supporting electronics had to be thermally autonomous, and the IRS was conceived to perform this task.

This paper describes the design and performance of the Astro Integrated Radiator System (IRS). The system was recently ground tested and proven successful in rejecting approximately 400 watts of heat. The radiator was constructed from an aluminum panel configured to form two orthogonal planes. Heat pipes were adhesively bonded and riveted to the radiator to isothermalize the surface. The IRS was subjected to a full thermal vacuum test to validate the thermal math model and to qualify the radiator for space flight. The thermal performance met prescribed temperature limits with margins at both extremes, and no mechanical failures occurred.

This paper describes the design and performance characteristics of the thermal control system for the Spacelab Astro-1 payload. Dubbed the Integrated Radiator System, or IRS, the assembly is a thermal radiation system designed to maintain the temperature of payload electronics packages within a specified range, regardless of payload or orbiter orientation in space. The radiator is passive in its ability to reject heat, but active when the lower temperature limit is reached. At that point, resistance heaters are energized to maintain the radiator surface temperature within acceptable range. The performance of the radiator system during its flight aboard the Space Shuttle is reported in this paper. An earlier paper presented the thermal analysis and test data predicting the performance of the radiator system before the flight. In this paper, data collected during the flight is reported and compared to the performance predicted by analyses and tests.