Patent ID: 7270302

Claim:
A thermal control system for a spacecraft, the spacecraft being characterized in part by a spacecraft bus supporting at least one instrument, and one or more spacecraft thermal radiator panels spatially separated and kinematically isolated from the at least one instrument, the system comprising: a plurality of active coolers including at least one active cooler, the at least one active cooler mounted or for being mounted to the spacecraft at a location spatially separated and kinematically isolated from the at least one instrument; a plurality of instruments including the at least one instrument; at least one kinematic mount for kinematically isolating the at least one active cooler from the at least one instrument; and a closed loop control system; wherein the closed loop control system is generates cooler drive signals D as follows: T e =T f −T c Δd=−R T (R R T ) − T e D=d 0 +Δd where T e is a temperature error, T f is a temperature command, T c is a measured temperature signal, R is an NxM matrix of partial derivatives related to changes in cooler drive signals to changes in temperatures of the plurality of instruments, N is the number of the plurality of instruments, M is the number of the plurality of active coolers, and d 0 is a nominal cooler drive set point, the at least one active cooler thermally coupled between the at least one instrument and the one or more spacecraft thermal radiator panels or for thermally coupling the at least one instrument and the one or more spacecraft thermal radiator panels, the at least one active cooler for transferring heat from the at least one instrument to the one or more spacecraft thermal radiator panels.