Aegis Aerospace Supports AFRL/RV’s SPIRRAL to Revolutionize Space-based Thermal Systems

Aegis Aerospace is proud to serve the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/RV) through the Space Power InfraRed Regulation and Analysis of Lifetime (SPIRRAL) experiment.

SPIRRAL—which launched in November— will characterize the performance of Variable Emissivity Materials, or VEMs, an approach toward solving thermal challenges for space vehicles while on-orbit.

From the article: SPIRRAL will host a variety of VEMs onboard an Aegis Aerospace Materials International Space Station Experiment or MISSE carrier. The carrier will be secured to an external face of the International Space Station, exposing the VEM samples to the space environment. While the VEMs undergo the temperature extremes of space, performance data is then captured. The data collected will be compared to their expected performance based on models formulated by terrestrial characterization.

Aegis Aerospace proudly and efficiently provided support via two ways: through our work with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP) as well as by SPIRRAL testing on MISSE, our commercial flight facility on the International Space Station.

AFRL/RV’s SPIRRAL brings us one step closer to revolutionizing space-based thermal systems!

AFRL Article: Revolutionizing space-based thermal systems: AFRL’s SPIRRAL launch on SPX-31

photo credit: AFRL