New technologies for space vehicles

FSUE "ORPE "Technologiya" in cooperation with the Lavochkin Research and Production Association and the Research and Production Enterprise "Tais" has mastered the manufacture of thermal honeycomb panels, including panels with thermooptical coatings, for a radically new system of space vehicle temperature control.

A thermal honeycomb panel is a sandwich structure with the embedded fittings for instruments attachment and heat transfer tubes having leakproof cavities filled with heat-transfer agent inside it.

A number of new design and engineering concepts, new technologies in the manufacture of telecommunications satellites, were used in the manufacture of thesecomponents. A supporting node and the way of its installation without templates and jigs has been developed and patented. All embedded fittings for the attachment of instruments are installed in a supporting node during one technological cycle of panel assembly, resulting in a shorter time of panel manufacture. The accuracy of components installation runs to 0.05 mm when the distance between the centres of embedded items is up to 0.1 mm over the whole surface of the panel. Thin adhesive compositions and other new materials, including compositions with expanding microspheres, are widely used in panels.

The introduction of new technologies reduces the weight of satellites and extends their service life up to 10-15 years.

In recent years ORPE "Technologiya" has manufactured panels with a new temperature control system "71X6", "Yamal-20", "KazSat", "BelKa", "Electro", "Spektr-R", "Kondor",etc. Work is underway on the preparation for the production in 2007 of these panels for space vehicles "Fobos-Grunt", "Yamal-300", "Kanopus-b" and space vehicles of the USS (Unified space system) type.