Innovative Mechanically Pumped loop for ACtive Antennae

Project Information

IMPACTA

Grant agreement ID: 822027

DOI

10.3030/822027

Project closed

EC signature date 24 October 2018

Start date 1 January 2019

End date 30 September 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Space

Total cost

€ 3 727 383,75

EU contribution

€ 3 629 455,00

Coordinated by

AVS ADDED VALUE INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS SLU
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - IMPACTA (Innovative Mechanically Pumped loop for ACtive Antennae)

Reporting period: 2020-07-01 to 2022-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Future communication satellites need to accommodate a rapidly growing demand in data transfer, combined with more flexibility. For example, there is a strong need for Very High Throughput Satellites capable of delivering up to Tb/s over wide coverage areas. This is only possible when an active phased array antenna is used.

However, cooling of active antennas requires the use of a highly efficient thermal control system because it has many heat sources (from hundreds to several thousands), very high local heat fluxes (up to 20W/cm² at amplifier interface), high overall dissipation (around 13 kW), and isothermal requirements on the amplifier chain. These conditions are impossible to solve with current state-of-the-art thermal control solutions (e.g. heat pipes or loop heat pipes), but requires a two-phase mechanically pumped fluid loop (MPL).

The objective of IMPACTA is to create an innovative bespoke thermal control solution for Active Antennae that are a building block of next generation telecom satellites in Europe. This will, as a consequence, solve the need of telecommunication of future space missions, with a research on specific problems as high heat rejection and high heat fluxes.

The main objective of IMPACTA was to perform research on a two-phase MPL for an active antenna, and to build a demonstrator with a Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of 6. This implied a number of activities detailed below:

Based on a thorough analysis of the requirements from an Active Antenna thermal control system, IMPACTA MPL must accomplish the following technical specifications:

• Total heat rejection: 10+ [kW]
• Nominal saturation temperature 80 [ºC] (corresponds to approx. 41 [bar])
• Nominal mass flow rate: 16 [g·s-1]
• Vapor mass fraction (evap. outlet): 0.7
• Heat flux (evaporator’s interface): 25+ [W·cm-2]

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In WP1, AVS has been coordinating the coordinating the consortium during the whole project execution. Progress Meetings for the monitoring of the work between each partners. Deliverables, presentations, 2D, ... have been uploaded to a sharefolder, periodic reports have submitted to the EC.

In WP2, the study of the art was analyzed and requirements for the active antenna and the MPL EQM where defined.

In WP3, the trade off and selection of the pump for IMPACTA was completed. AVS's pump (PDPump) was the only one available for the system, as there are not space pumps at the moment in EU. The trade-off and preliminary design of the evap. and the EQM itself were also done. Ammonia was selected as the working fluid for IMPACTA.

In WP4, the EQM was detailed designed and the procurement of LLI started. Some evaporator prototypes were manufactured and tested.

In WP5, the complete MPL has been manufactured and assembled. All the components have been procured. The electrical gabinet has been assembled and the cable routing done.

In WP6 Test Campaign and Conclusion:
- Two-phase MPL operation in all orientations is demonstrated for 10 kW power with margin.
- The evaporator design with passive flow restrictions in parallel evaporator branches demonstrates stable operation in all operational cases, including full imbalance cases with only one branch powered.
- The IMPACTA control works robustly in all cases including P/L start-up, sudden P/L shutdown for both the primary and redundant evaporator branches

In addition, the roadmap for future activity to higher the TRL has been done, as well as the study of application for other payloads.

Regarding WP7, the consortium has participated in different conferences and workshops. A webpage has been created: https://impacta-mpl.com/ and papers published.

Finally, WP8 Exploitation and Commercial assessment has been completed in order to perform an study of the market and identify the best dissemination possibility.


In conclusion, IMPACTA has resulted in a successful project on which all the specific objectives of the project have been achieved. IMPACTA has survived to the unexpected external impacta (coronavirus) in 2020 and also to the war between Russia and Ucrania, which in the last period has increased the cost of the materials and generated delays in transportation. The equipment has been manufactured and the test campaing has been executed (performance testing). In addition, the thermal vacuum & vibration testing has been performed to the PDPump. During the project dissemination, activities have been carried out in order to advertise IMPACTA MPL. Different conferences & workshops have been attended. In addition, some papers have been published:
“Development of an Innovative Diaphragm Pump and Two-Phase Mechanically Pumped Loop for Active Antennas“ https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/handle/2346/89743
“Preliminary design of a mechanically pumped cooling system for active antennae“ https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/handle/2346/87033
A new publication is expected and will be presented in the ICES.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

It is expected a need of very high-power satellite platforms in a shorter-term, 13kW for civil telecom satellites. Therefore, Large System Integrators (LSI) in Europe, showed interest in (MPLs) which are high heat rejection thermal control systems (between 10kW and 20 kW as reference) for their use as thermal control systems of active antennas. IMPACTA has been designed to accomplish the following technical specifications:
• Total heat rejection: 10+ [kW]
• Nominal saturation temperature 80 [ºC] (corresponds to approx. 41 [bar])
• Nominal mass flow rate: 16 [g·s-1]
• Vapor mass fraction (evap. outlet): 0.7
• Heat flux (evaporator’s interface): 25+ [W·cm-2]
• Working fluid: ammonia
These features have been verified satisfactorily in an extensive test campaign.

In order to commercialize the technology developed within IMPACTA, a QM and FM would be needed to be built according to ECSS standards:

Additionally, for any given device, regardless of the quality level required by the customer, there is an acceptance test campaign to be performed, which tests will be agreed case-by-case with the user. Overall, these would be some cost drivers to be taking into account from the technical point of view when launching IMPACTA to the market.

The IMPACTA project has shown that the two-phase MPL is a powerful thermal technology which is perfectly sized to perform the thermal management of large active antenna within digital payloads on Telecom Spacecraft. However, telecommunication satellite operator portfolio is very much confused in defining wno clear and definitive answers to the above structural questions. For the time being, one of the LSI, TAS, has already selected to fit its medium size satellihat will be the standard solution(s) that will dominate the Telecoms market into space: constellations of small satellites vs. standalone “large” satellite platforms, medium size, entirely digitally reconfigurable satellites vs large robust platforms. Even though commercial perspective is positive, there are today te with 2-phase MPL with an increasing forecast of orders. It is reasonable to consider that the successful commercialization and expansion of MPL use on spacecraft will most probably depends on the costs of its components with regards to the overall spacecraft costs.

IMPACTA_Leaflet

IMPACTA_MPL