Realization and thermal performance analysis of liquid nitrogen based 80 K Cryo-Target system for space simulation of meteorological payloads

Liquid nitrogen based Cryo-target system need to be used in thermo-vacuum chamber to simulate on-orbit environments of meteorological payloads. For a number of reasons it is essentially important to quantify the thermal performance of CT system prior to the actual tests of meteorological payloads. In this paper we present thermal performance of an efficient closed loop liquid nitrogen circulated blistered type embossed CT system inside thermo-vacuum chamber. We discuss important experiments, tests and their results that were carried out for the performance optimization of CT system. The optimized CT systems with space qualified conductive black painted aluminum honeycomb mounted on it were successfully used for Met payloads of INSAT 3D during TVP tests. The heat load handling capacity of closed loop flat plate CT system in thermo-vacuum chamber is analytically investigated. It is concluded that a closed loop CT system is better for low temperature and high external heat load requirements.