Ground Testing of Active Thermal Tiles

The Active Thermal Tiles experiment explores another option for managing heat onboard spacecraft. The Active Thermal Tiles (ATTs) are thermoelectric devices that can alter the thermal gradient between the bus and payload without any fluids or moving parts. This makes them ideal for use in spacecraft. The ground unit was tested in a vacuum chamber under 84 different conditions between 280K and 310K. The power supplied to the payload was varied between 0.0A and 3.0A. Conductance and the coefficient of performance were measured and a performance map was created. In addition, the energy used by the ATTs was compared against the energy used by survival heaters.