CBERS 3&4 TM Thermal Balance Test Results and Satellite Thermal Mathematical Model Correlation

CBERS 3&4, China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellites, projected for 3 years of remote sensing mission in Sun Synchronous orbit, are at the present under development. Brief description of satellites is given. On September of 2009 the thermal balance test (TBT) of the full-scale thermal model (TM) of the satellite CBERS3&4 was performed. During the TBT, seven modes of satellite operation were reproduced; they include cold and hot steady-state and transient cases, surviving and specific modes of operation. Analysis of obtained data has demonstrated the thermal design is qualified. In this paper the main results of TBT are presented. TM layout, TBT configuration and phases simulated are given. Two thermal mathematical models (TMM) were used in parallel for the satellite thermal design validation by the test results; their descriptions, main results of simulation and correlation are presented. Lessons learned include observations on the TBT campaign as well as for TMM features and correlations are also included.