Direct measurement of total emissivities at cryogenic temperatures: Application to satellite coatings

This paper presents a direct measurement method for optical properties of different materials at cryogenic temperatures from 20 K to 200 K. It has been developed within the framework of the design of Planck program. Planck is a satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) that will be launched in 2008. The scientific goal of the Planck mission is to make observations of the temperature anisotropy and polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The equivalent temperature of the observed radiation is about 3 K and the telescope baffle temperature should not exceed 60 K in order to work properly. The large Planck telescope is passively cooled by radiating to the Deep Space, so that a good knowledge of the thermo-optical properties of its coating is of utmost importance for thermal modelling. However, up to now, few measurements have been done at such low temperatures. We derived a direct measurement method for the total directional emissivity of various coatings of interest for satellites applications. The effective spectral range chosen the measurements covers 6–800 μm. We will describe the design of the measurement apparatus and present results for several coatings.