Thermal model and analysis of the BELA transmitter Stavroudis baffle in Mercury orbit

Abstract

In the frame of the ESA BepiColombo mission to the planet Mercury the German Aerospace Center (DLR), in cooperation with the University of Bern, is designing the first European laser altimeter for planetary exploration (BELA). While orbiting Mercury the solar flux reaches 14 kW and strikes on the instrument at angles of > 38 deg from the instrument line of sight. The planet surface reaches 700 K while the view factor with the instrument aperture is high due to the low orbit altitude. Under these conditions a major challenge is the design of the instrument baffles, which shall avoid direct sunlight to reach the optics, minimize the heat load to the instrument and the S/C cavity and reduce stray light. We describe the thermal model of the transmitter baffle, focusing on advanced features like the approximation of ellipsoids and hyperboloids in the geometrical mathematical model, its optimization with respect to computational time and baffle efficiency, the dynamic implementation of wavelength dependant thermo- optical properties for the calculation of both absorbed planetary fluxes – as function of Mercury surface temperature – and radiative conductances (GR). The worst cases selection in the scenario of the whole Mercury orbit about the sun is also presented followed by a detailed overview of the analysis results.