ALBERT

Description: The Simplified Shuttle Payload Thermal Analyzer program (SSPTA) was developed to aid in the evaluation of thermal design concepts of instruments to be flown in the Space Shuttle cargo bay. SSPTA consists of a collection of programs that are currently used in the thermal analysis of spacecraft and have been modified for quick, preliminary analysis of payloads. SSPTA includes a reduced math model of the Shuttle cargo bay to simplify use of the program for payload analysis. One of the prime objectives in developing SSPTA was to create a program which was easy to use. With SSPTA, the user required input is simple and the user is free from many of the concerns of computer usage such as disk space handling, tape usage, and complicated program control. Although SSPTA was designed primarily to analyze Shuttle payloads, it can easily be used to perform thermal analysis in other situations. SSPTA is comprised of a system of data files called 'bins', a master program, and a set of thermal subprograms. The bin system is a collection of disk files which contain data required by or computed by the thermal subprograms. SSPTA currently has the capability of handling 50 bins. The master program serves primarily as a manager for the bin system and its interaction with the thermal subprograms. Input to the master program consists of simple user commands which direct the data manipulation procedures, prepare the data for these procedures, and call the appropriate thermal subprograms. The subprograms of SSPTA are all based on programs which have been used extensively in the analysis of orbiting spacecraft and space hardware. Subprogram CONSHAD uses the user supplied geometric radiation model to compute black body view factors, shadow factors, and a description of the surface model. The subprogram WORKSHEET uses the surface model description, optical property data, and node assignment data to prepare input for SCRIPTF. Subprogram SCRIPTF computes the inverses of the infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) radiation transfer equations; it also computes the radiation coupling between nodes in the thermal model. Subprogram ORBITAL uses the shadow tables to compute incident flux intensities on each surface in the geometric model. Subprogram ABSORB uses these flux intensities combined with the IR and UV inverses to compute the IR and UV fluxes absorbed by each surface. The radiation couplings from SCRIPTF and the absorbed fluxes from ABSORB are used by subprogram TTA to compute the temperature and power balance for each node in the thermal model. Output consists of tabulated data from each of the subprograms executed during a particular analysis. Due to the modular form of SSPTA, analyses may be run in whole or in part, and new subprograms may be added by the user. SSPTA is written in FORTRAN for use on a DEC VAX-11/780. SSPTA was originally developed in 1977 for use on IBM 370 series computers. This version is an update which was ported to the VAX in 1980.

Description: Computer program descriptions for steady-state temperatures over spherical satellites with opaque or partially or fully transparent surface

Description: The eigenvalue method, which has been used by researchers in structure mechanics, is applied to problems in heat conduction. Its formulation is decribed in terms of an examination of transient heat conduction in a square slab. Taking advantage of the availability of the exact solution, we compare the accuracy and other numerical properties of the eigenvalue method with those of existing numerical schemes. The comparsion shows that, overall, the eigenvalue method appears to be fairly attractive. Furthermore, only a few dominant eigenvalues and their corresponding eigenvectors need to be computed and retained to yield reasonably high accuracy. Greater savings are attained in the computation time for a transient problem with long time duration and a large computational domain.

Description: The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) is a large astronomical observatory which was launched on January 26, 1978. The observatory was placed into a three-axis stabilized, eccentric synchronous orbit with an inclination of about 29 degrees. It was designed for a three year lifetime, but is currently still operational. This paper will briefly review the thermal design which consists of multilayer insulation, ammonia-filled grooved heat pipes, bimetallic actuated louvers, and assorted commandable heaters. It will then discuss the seven years of thermal data and compare the results with prelaunch predictions. Finally an attempt will be made to explain the unexpected and continuing rise in temperature of the hydrazine auxiliary propulsion system which has increased over twenty degrees centigrade since launch.

Description: Computer analysis programs to evaluate critical coupling effects that can significantly influence spacecraft system performance are described. These coupling effects arise from the varied parameters of the spacecraft systems, environments, and forcing functions associated with disciplines such as thermal, structures, and controls. Adverse effects can be expected to significantly impact system design aspects such as structural integrity, controllability, and mission performance. One such needed design analysis capability is a software system that can integrate individual discipline computer codes into a highly user-oriented/interactive-graphics-based analysis capability. The integrated analysis capability (IAC) system can be viewed as: a core framework system which serves as an integrating base whereby users can readily add desired analysis modules and as a self-contained interdisciplinary system analysis capability having a specific set of fully integrated multidisciplinary analysis programs that deal with the coupling of thermal, structures, controls, antenna radiation performance, and instrument optical performance disciplines.

Description: DEC VAX 11/780 version of the Simplified Shuttle Payload Thermal Analyzer (SSPTA) aids in evaluating thermal design of instruments to be flown in the Space Shuttle cargo bay. SSPTA is a collection of programs that are currently used in thermal analysis of spacecraft, modified for quick, preliminary analysis of payloads.

Description: SINDA, Systems Improved Numerical Differencing Analyzer, solves differential and algebric equations representing physical systems. SINDA solves numerically almost any set of ordinary differential equations that represent transient behavior of a lumped-parameter system or any set of nonlinear algebraic equations that represents the steady state conditions of a physical system.

Description: The FWDBCK time step, which is usually chosen intuitively to achieve adequate accuracy at reasonable computational costs, can in fact lead to large errors. NASA observed such errors in solving cryogenic problems on the COBE spacecraft, but a similar error is also demonstrated for a single node radiating to space. An algorithm has been developed for selecting the time step during the course of the simulation. The error incurred when the time derivative is replaced by the FWDBCK time difference can be estimated from the Taylor-Series expression for the temperature. The algorithm selects the time step to keep this error small. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated on the COBE and single-node problems.

Description: The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) is a large astronomical observatory scheduled to be placed in a three-axis stabilized synchronous orbit in the fourth quarter of 1977. The thermal control system consists of multilayer insulation, ammonia-filled grooved heat pipes, bimetallic actuated louvers, and assorted commandable heaters. The spacecraft must operate over a 135-deg solar aspect range and must be able to survive an 85-min.-zero power eclipse. It has a design lifetime of three years. To verify the thermal design, an Engineering Test Unit (ETU) was subjected to a thermal balance test in the Solar Environment Simulator (SES) at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Heater skins were utilized to simulate four solar aspect angles, and various internal power settings were used to simulate different operational cases. Temperatures obtained corresponded within 5C of predicted values, thus verifying the thermal analytical model. In addition, two 85-min.-eclipse periods were successfully completed verifying that the thermal design of the IUE was adequate for this mission requirement.

Description: Temperature distribution of thin-walled, transparent, spherical earth satellite assuming negligible lateral and radial conduction and steady state fixed position for satellite