A Miniaturized 3D Heat Flux Sensor to Characterize Heat Transfer in Regolith of Planets and Small Bodies

The objective of this work is to present the first analytical and experimental results obtained with a 3D heat flux sensor for planetary regolith. The proposed structure, a sphere divided in four sectors, is sensible to heat flow magnitude and angle. Each sector includes a platinum resistor that is used both to sense its temperature and provide heating power. By operating the sectors at constant temperature, the sensor gives a response that is proportional to the heat flux vector in the regolith. The response of the sensor is therefore independent of the thermal conductivity of the regolith. A complete analytical solution of the response of the sensor is presented. The sensor may be used to provide information on the instantaneous local thermal environment surrounding a lander in planetary exploration or in small bodies like asteroids. To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first sensor capable of measuring local 3D heat flux.

A thermal control system for long-term survival of scientific instruments on lunar surface

A thermal control system is being developed for scientific instruments placed on the lunar surface. This thermal control system, Lunar Mission Survival Module (MSM), was designed for scientific instruments that are planned to be operated for over a year in the future Japanese lunar landing mission SELENE-2. For the long-term operations, the lunar surface is a severe environment because the soil (regolith) temperature varies widely from nighttime -200 degC to daytime 100 degC approximately in which space electronics can hardly survive. The MSM has a tent of multi-layered insulators and performs a "regolith mound". Temperature of internal devices is less variable just like in the lunar underground layers. The insulators retain heat in the regolith soil in the daylight, and it can keep the device warm in the night. We conducted the concept design of the lunar survival module, and estimated its potential by a thermal mathematical model on the assumption of using a lunar seismometer designed for SELENE-2. Thermal vacuum tests were also conducted by using a thermal evaluation model in order to estimate the validity of some thermal parameters assumed in the computed thermal model. The numerical and experimental results indicated a sufficient survivability potential of the concept of our thermal control system.

In situ methods for measuring thermal properties and heat flux on planetary bodies

The thermo-mechanical properties of planetary surface and subsurface layers control to a high extent in which way a body interacts with its environment, in particular how it responds to solar irradiation and how it interacts with a potentially existing atmosphere. Furthermore, if the natural temperature profile over a certain depth can be measured in situ, this gives important information about the heat flux from the interior and thus about the thermal evolution of the body. Therefore, in most of the recent and planned planetary lander missions experiment packages for determining thermo-mechanical properties are part of the payload. Examples are the experiment MUPUS on Rosetta's comet lander Philae, the TECP instrument aboard NASA's Mars polar lander Phoenix, and the mole-type instrument HP(3) currently developed for use on upcoming lunar and Mars missions. In this review we describe several methods applied for measuring thermal conductivity and heat flux and discuss the particular difficulties faced when these properties have to be measured in a low pressure and low temperature environment. We point out the abilities and disadvantages of the different instruments and outline the evaluation procedures necessary to extract reliable thermal conductivity and heat flux data from in situ measurements.