Build to Print Cruise Phase Thermal Design and Performance of the Mars 2020 Spacecraft

The Mars 2020 spacecraft, launched July 30, 2020, heavily leveraged hardware and design from the MSL mission. Unlike the MER missions, designed and built in parallel, the separation of nine years between MSL and Mars 2020 provided time and data to better understand performance, address deficiencies, and clarify documentation. As an example, early MSL unknowns such as thermal test requirements became early Mars 2020 knowns and allowed teams to adapt and improve on model correlation and implementation. Meanwhile, the duplication emphasized the need to understand capabilities, margins, and workmanship differences to effectively judge mission variances. The following takes a look at some of the Mars 2020 thermal lifecycle differences and similarities with its predecessor as well as its performance during the cruise phase of the mission.