Heat Transfer, Thermal Control, and Heat Pipes

The era of space exploration and utilization that we are witnessing today could not have become reality without a host of evolutionary and even revolutionary advances in many technical areas. Thermophysics is certainly no exception. In fact, the interdisciplinary field of thermophysics plays a significant role in the life cycle of all space missions from launch, through operation in the space environment, to entry into the atmosphere of Earth or one of Earth's planetary neighbors. Thermal control has been and remains a prime design concern for all spacecraft. Although many noteworthy advances in thermal control technology can be cited, such as advanced thermal coatings, louvered space radiators, low-temperature phase-change material packages, heat pipes and thermal diodes, and computational thermal analysis techniques, new and more challenging problems continue to arise. The prospects are for increased, not diminished, demands on the skill and ingenuity of the thermal control engineer and for continued advancement in those fundamental discipline areas upon which he relies. It is hoped that these volumes will be useful references for those working in these fields who may wish to bring themselves upto-date in the applications to spacecraft and a guide and inspiration to those who, in the future, will be faced with new and, as yet, unknown design challenges.