Thermal design of «AIST» small spacecraft

Abstract

Thermal design is a prerequisite essential to design a satellite. In space environment, it makes it possible for the satellite to survive in extreme hot and cold conditions. In recent years small satellite missions have been developed for many kinds of purposes. The paper describes thermal design for the AIST small spacecraft mission. To calculate thermal environment a detailed thermal mathematical model has been developed using the finite element method and Siemens NX 10.0 software with the integrated module NX Space Systems Thermal Simulation. The analysis carried out with the help of mathematical simulation showed the sufficiency of the passive thermal control system of the AIST small spacecraft. In order to improve thermal radiation couplings between panels a coating with a high emissivity factor was applied on all the inner surfaces. The outer surfaces (except the areas occupied with photovoltaic converters) were coated with aluminum foil. The graphs of changes in temperatures of onboard equipment in the orbital flight phase show that all the parameters meet the requirements of the thermal control system specifications.

Keywords

• thermal control system
• thermal loads
• heat conduction
• radiation
• temperature range
• orbital flight