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HI-POWER
A High Irradiance Peltier Operated Tungsten Exo-Reflector for the daytime exploration of Mercury.
Surviving an Extreme Environment
The goal is to minimize the amount of heat transferred to the rover from the ground and infrared radiation from the shield. Any heat that does reach the rover is pumped out through the mounting system to the shield using POLAR coolers.
A New Kind of Cooler
Thermoelectric coolers (TECs) are solid state heat pumps which use the Peltier effect to transfer thermal energy. They are sometimes referred to as Peltier coolers, and take the form of mostly flat, square units with a hot side and a cold side. The Peltier with Optimal Levels of Alpha Radiation, or POLAR cooler, includes small amounts of radioisotopes in the P and N feet to ionize the material and free electrons.
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