The Capillary Pumped Loop Flight Experiment (CAPL 2) employs a passive two-phase thermal control system that uses the latent heat of vaporization of ammonia to transfer heat over long distances. CAPL was designed as a prototype of the Earth Observing System (EOS) instrument thermal control systems. The purpose of the mission was to provide validation of the system performance in microgravity, prior to implementation on EOS. CAPL 1 was flown on STS-60 in February, 1994, with some unexpected results related to gravitational effects on two-phase systems. Start-up difficulties on CAPL 1 led to a redesign of the experiment (CAPL 2) and a reflight on STS-69 in September of 1995. The CAPL 2 flight was extremely successful and the new “starter pump” design is now baselined for the EOS application. This paper emphasizes the design history, the CAPL 2 design, and lessons learned from the CAPL program.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Design Evolution of the Capillary Pumped Loop (CAPL 2) Flight Experiment


    Additional title:

    Sae Technical Papers


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    International Conference On Environmental Systems ; 1996



    Publication date :

    1996-07-01




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




    Ground Tests of Capillary Pumped Loop (CAPL 3) Flight Experiment

    Ku, Jentung / Cheung, Kwok / Ottenstein, Laura et al. | SAE Technical Papers | 1998


    Ground Tests of Capillary Pumped Loop (CAPL 3) Flight Experiment

    Ku, J. / Ottenstein, L. / Cheung, K. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1998


    The Capillary Pumped Loop III (CAPL III) Flight Demonstration, Description, and Status

    Kim, J. H. / Cheung, K.-H. / Haught, E. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1997



    Performance of the CAPL 2 Flight Experiment

    Butler, Dan / Ku, Jentung / Ottenstein, Laura | SAE Technical Papers | 1996