ARTE

Advanced Research Thermal Passive Exchange (ARTE) is a project intended to create "Thermal Exchange", an experiment for the International Space Station (ISS). It is a heat pipe technology demonstrator in which the heat pipes contain low toxicity fluid. Thermal Exchange has been designed by Argotec in collaboration the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Polytechnic University of Turin participated in the project with the development of a prototype of the electronics and software. On April 4, 2016, the experiment was conducted nominally on board the International Space Station by the American astronaut Timothy Kopra. History In 2012 Argotec started research in the field of passive heat transfer for the internal development of a device called a heat pipe. This technology is known in the scientific field, but at the moment in Europe there are very few producers and Italy is limited to the purchase of foreign products. Argotec developed a numerical model in order to design a device that can maximize the performance thanks to the optimal combination of external geometry (diameter and length of the tube) and internal geometry (grooves). On board the International Space Station, heat transfer is mainly performed by active systems. Regarding heat removal, internal loops have been installed that collect heat generated by crew and equipment. They transport the heat to external loops, which then transfer the heat to surface (radiators) from which it is radiated towards deep space. The active systems are able to work across a range of operating powers because the application parameters can be changed during the operations by a controller. On the other hand, they have complexity that in space is often reflected in a greater involvement of resources (mass and time of the astronaut) and in a higher probability of malfunction. The goal is then to design a competitive system in terms of performance that is also as simple as possible. Therefore, the ARTE project was born in order to realize a new payload: Thermal Exchange. The goal is to test heat pipes on board the ISS. The fluids selected are low toxicity fluids: this is the reason why these fluids can be used inside the Internal Space Station in which astronauts work. At the moment, some heat pipes are currently used on the ISS but they are installed externally because they contain ammonia. If this fluid were used for internal devices, in the event of a leak it would create a catastrophic hazard to the astronauts.