The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) are a pair of spacecraft manufactured by Rocket Lab USA's Space Systems divisions, overseen by the Space Sciences Lab at UC Berkeley. The primary science instruments are intended to study the interaction between ions and Mars' magneto-sphere. The identical space vehicles experience a wide variety of thermal environments at Earth, on the way to Mars, and at Mars. Additionally, the spacecraft are expected to experience solar conjunction during cruise, further complicating the fault protection scheme. This work will detail the thermal challenges related to a pair relatively low mass Mars orbiters performing apogee raising maneuvers at Earth, orbital capture at Mars, and multiple burns in orbit around Mars over the prime science mission of the orbiters. The space vehicles will have to keep the bi-propellant propulsion system active and ready to change orbital parameters at roughly 6 month intervals over the 3 year prime science mission presenting significant thermal challenges. The Authors will discuss some of the problems that had to be overcome in the design as well as some innovative solutions to minimize complexity and maximize resources to deliver a robust Mars bound thermal design.
Reilly et al. (Sun,) studied this question.