IberEspacio Satellite Thermal Control Hardware
Arquimea
Flight-proven heat pipes, loop heat pipes (LHP), MLI blankets, and thermo-structural panels for satellite thermal management — >1,000 units delivered across 53+ missions including Sentinel, Alphasat, ExoMars, EDRS.
Key figurescomparable across the catalogue
- Design life
- 15 years
Normalised to common units so this product can be compared with others in its category. The supplier's own wording is below.
As published by the supplier
- Heat transfer capacity (LHP)
- Up to 1 kW standard; >1.2 kW multi-evaporator
- Operating temperature range (LHP)
- 140 K to 400 K (−133°C to +127°C)
- High-temperature lhp
- Up to 125°C (HTLHP, TRL 5+)
- Max lhp transport length
- Up to 10 m
- Working fluids
- Ammonia, propylene, ethane, Freon R134a
- Structural materials
- Aluminum alloys, stainless steel, titanium fluid lines
- Wick type
- Sintered porous metal
- Insulation products
- Single-layer and multi-layer insulation (MLI) blankets
- Design lifetime
- >15 years
- Heritage missions
- Sentinel-1/2/6, Alphasat, ExoMars, EDRS-A/C, Intelsat 19/20, Star One C4, Astro-H
- Flight units delivered
- >1,000 across 53+ missions
- Facility area
- 9,000–10,000 m² (Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid)
- Parent group
- ARQUIMEA Group (acquired December 2022)
About
IberEspacio’s Satellite Thermal Control Hardware portfolio represents more than three decades of specialization in the design, development, manufacturing, qualification, and integration of passive and semi-passive thermal control products for space. The product line covers the full thermal control chain: axial grooved heat pipes, arterial heat pipes, loop heat pipes (LHPs), multi-layer insulation (MLI) assemblies, thermo-structural panels, and deployable radiators — addressing heat transport, thermal isolation, and structural-thermal integration at both component and system level.
The heat pipe family includes standard and high-performance variants fabricated from aluminum alloys and stainless steel with ammonia as primary working fluid, alongside qualified alternatives including propylene, ethane, and Freon R134a. Loop heat pipes use a capillary-driven two-phase cycle with a sintered porous wick, transporting up to 1 kW over distances of up to 10 m across a temperature range of 140 K to 400 K (−133°C to +127°C). A High Temperature Loop Heat Pipe (HTLHP) qualified up to 125°C (TRL 5+) was developed in collaboration with Thales Alenia Space and EADS-CASA Espacio for ESA.
A key innovation is IberEspacio’s flat loop heat pipe evaporator manufactured using additive techniques, reducing part count to four components, lowering production cost, and enabling deployment on CubeSats and small satellites. The company also developed a multiple-evaporator LHP system capable of transporting over 1.2 kW — a patented concept for complex satellite platforms with multiple distributed heat sources.
Thermo-structural panels combine structural load-bearing function with embedded heat-pipe thermal transport paths, serving dual roles in mass-constrained spacecraft. MLI blankets provide passive thermal insulation and are manufactured and integrated at IberEspacio’s own 9,000 m² facility in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid. All hardware undergoes rigorous qualification including thermal-vacuum cycling, ultrasonic and infrared inspection, and electron beam welding verification. With over 1,000 thermal control flight units delivered across more than 53 missions — including Sentinel-1/2/6, Alphasat, ExoMars, EDRS-A/C, Intelsat 19/20, Star One C4, and Astro-H — IberEspacio is part of the ARQUIMEA Group following acquisition in December 2022.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.