Radiant Heater Design for Pressure Control Assembly of Propulsion System in Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter using Thermal Analysis

A customized radiant heater was applied to the thermal design of the pressure control assembly (PCA) of the propulsion system in the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, unlike the previous conventional thermal design in which a patch heater was used. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute proposed to validate the radiant heater design via thermal analysis and a thermal vacuum test. First, we created a model simulating the vacuum test situation and conducted the heater design processes using the numerical analysis presented in this paper. The heater designed through this analysis met the temperature and stability requirements of the PCA. In addition, this heater was integrated into the system's thermal model to perform a thermal analysis in the Earth-Moon transfer orbit. Consequently, we confirmed that the temperature of all components in the PCA was within the allowable range. These analysis results will be compared with future test results to finalize the heater design.