LU SMI doctoral student Luka Ivanovskis presents Latvian innovations at the ESTEW 2024 conference

On October 8-10, a doctoral student from Institute of Numerical Modelling University of Latvia, Luka Ivanovskis, participated in European Space Thermal Engineering Workshop ESTEW2024, which took place in one of the European Space Agency locations — ESTEC in Noordwyk, The Netherlands. ESTEW participants presented academic research in heat transfer and modelling, ESA current and future missions development aspects, as well as different commercial technology novelties.

Out of 240 workshop participants 40 were students at differing study levels (not all were presenters). European Space Agency encourages students to step into space industry activities through ESA Academy that even provides financial support to students for participation in such workshops.

Spacecrafts often use two-phase cooling systems: heat pipes and loop heat pipes, where innovations still continue to spread. Luka works on development and testing of such systems in Allatherm company from Latvia, and he presented company’s latest development — multievaporator. Multievaporator is a component of loop heat pipes, which takes heat from electronics or other devices that need cooling. Extensive testing has shown that multievaporator loop heat pipes could provide passive thermal management solution for spacecraft where other existing solutions happen to be heavier or more difficult in integration.

Phase change processes that happen in evaporator required additional research from fluid dynamics viewpoint, which became the starting point for Luka’s doctoral studies in UL. For the ESTEW closure, visits to ESTEC laboratories were offered. Luka visited ESA Propulsion Laboratory, where spacecraft ionic thrusters are tested. Allatherm has another innovation dedicated to ionic thruster propulsion — Xenon Refuelling Compressor. The technology involves phase change (again!) and the related design and research conducts another UL INM doctoral student Igors Ušakovs.