Thermal design and analysis of a hard x-ray modulation telescope

Thermal control of the Hard X-Ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) using common thermal-control hardware and thermal isolators was investigated. The thermal control hardware included thermal surface finishes, Multilayer insulation (MLI) heaters, and thermal isolator. The study covered the external top surfaces of the HXMT that faces toward space with five-layer MLI against the infrared radiations to control thermally induced structural distortion of HXMT. The 3-D numerical model of the HXMT evaluated the effects of MLI thickness and environmental heat flux variations on the HXMT component temperature and also predicted the amount of power required for heating detector cells and all these were calculated using a numerical software Thermal Desktop. Overall thermal control was obtained by balancing the energy (270°C) emitted by the telescope to cold space.