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Thermal Vacuum Test of SOLAR-B Thermal Structure Model
ISAS, Japan
January 24, 2003

The thermal vacuum test using SOLAR-B thermal structure model was 
carried out from October 16 to 30 in a large-scale, space 
environment-simulated chamber. This spacecraft carries two large 
telescopes for optical and X-ray observations and an extreme 
ultraviolet imaging spectrometer, which surrounds the bus module. 

Therefore, the key points in its thermal designing were how to adjust
the thermal coupling of the bus module with each telescope and 
spectrometer and how to discharge the heat accumulated in each 
telescope.

The thermal analysis is carried out on a thermal mathematical model 
built with a total node of 2500, approx. 1000 node at the system area 
and approx. 1500 node at the areas of telescopes and a spectrometer. 

The purpose of this thermal vacuum test is to evaluate the adequacy of 
this designing. For the test, approx. 200 channels of heaters 
simulating solar radiation and heat generation of onboard instruments, 
and approx. 600 channels for temperature measurement were prepared. 

The test was conducted on 11 items not only to evaluate the system 
design but also to verify the designing of the telescopes in detail. 
The picture shows the "SOLAR-B" thermal structure model installed in 
the chamber. 

The left picture shows the optical telescope (upper) and box bus 
module (lower) in the center, and surrounding them, a focal plane 
detector of the optical telescope on the left and a black cylindrical 
X-ray telescope in the center. The black box in the right picture is 
the extreme ultraviolet imaging spectrometer with the optical 
telescope in the background.

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