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Projecte llegit

Títol: Design of the life support subsystem of an orbital experiment

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: GONZÁLEZ CINCA, RICARD

Departament: FIS

Títol: Design of the life support subsystem of an orbital experiment

Data inici oferta: 08-05-2025     Data finalització oferta: 08-01-2026


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Segon director/a (UPC): LEAL ABADI, LUCAS
 
Paraules clau:
Low Earth orbit, thermal control system, biological payload, microgravity, PID, thermoelectric cooling, temperature regulation
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
This work presents the preliminary design of a thermal control system for a biological payload intended to operate in low Earth orbit (LEO). The system is based on an active thermal architecture that combines heating and thermoelectric cooling to maintain the embryos' cells under study within the required temperature range under different operational scenarios.
A thermal control simulation was developed to evaluate the dynamic response of an individualized embryo cell, including temperature tracking, ramp transitions, actuator behaviour, stabilization performance and energy consumption. Two operational scenarios were compared. Scenario A includes the initial ¿20 degrees Celsius storage phase, followed by incubation at 37 degrees Celsius and fixation at 4 degrees Celsius. Scenario B removes this sub-zero phase and starts the sequence from incubation until fixation. The results show that Scenario B provides a better energy-performance trade-off, reducing the total mission energy consumption from 1139 Wh to 272 Wh. Therefore, Scenario B is selected as the preferred thermal profile for the proposed system.
In addition, the environmental analysis considers the radiation conditions in LEO. For this purpose, a silicon-based detector is proposed for dose monitoring, along with a preliminary low-Z/high-Z sandwich shielding concept. Thermal insulation and humidity control are also considered. The proposed thermal insulation approach is based on polyimide foam with a low-emittance aluminized facing. Active humidity regulation is not required because the biological samples are placed inside hermetically sealed liquid-based cells. Overall, this work presents a preliminary approach for providing a stable and energy-efficient thermal environment for biological samples, while integrating the main environmental protection strategies required for the experiment.

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