The Planetary and Lunar Environment Thermal Toolbox Elements (PALETTE) project was a 3-year JPL-led effort initiated in April 2020 funded by NASA Game Changing Development (GCD) that sought to develop new thermal tools for instruments in extreme environments. One of the thermal tools developed on PALETTE was an additively manufactured (AM) parabolic reflector radiator (PRR) that can achieve a low sink temperature (TSINK) during the day at low latitude lunar sites. Since the ultimate goal of any NASA GCD technology development project is flight infusion, PALETTE has targeted science missions requiring advanced thermal tools. The first such mission was the Farside Seismic Suite (FSS), which will take Mars Insight seismometers to Schrodinger Basin in 2025. FSS required three of the four primary PALETTE tools: 1-thermally-switched enclosure; 2-spacerless MLI; and 3-low conductance thermal isolators. The second PALETTE infusion opportunity is the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment Night Version (LuSEE-Night), which will land at a low latitude farside site in 2026 to perform 21 cm cosmology from the RF quietness of that site. Because of its low latitude site and lifetime goal of 24 lunar day/night cycles, LuSEE-Night not only required advanced thermal tools similar to those on FSS, but also required a PRR. To demonstrate PALETTE PRR technology on LuSEE-Night, NASA GCD initiated the PALETTE PRR for LuSEE-Night project. The key project goal is for JPL to design, build, test, and deliver 12 PRR reflectors (9 flight units plus 3 spares) to LuSEE-Night by April 2024. LuSEE-Night will produce the finned radiator to which the 9 PRR reflectors will mate. The LuSEE-Night PRR is 0.85 m tall, 1.0 m wide and its target TSINK is 230 K with a 400 K lunar surface. This paper will summarize the status of the PALETTE PRR for LuSEE-Night project at the time of its submission.
Bugby et al. (Sun,) studied this question.