Thermal aspects of satellite downscaling

Weeren, H. V., ter Brake, H. J. M., Holl, G., Hamann, R. J. and Price, S. (2009) Thermal aspects of satellite downscaling. Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, 23 (3). pp. 592-600. ISSN 0887-8722 doi: 10.2514/1.41857

Abstract/Summary

The strong trend toward nanosatellites creates new challenges in terms of thermal balance control. The thermal balance of a satellite is determined by the heat dissipation in its subsystems and by the thermal connections between them. As satellites become smaller, heat dissipation in their subsystems tends to decrease and thermal connectivity scales down with dimension. However, these two terms do not necessarily scale in the same way, and so the thermal balance may alter and the temperature of subsystems may reach undesired levels. This paper focuses on low-Earth-orbit satellites. We constructed a generalized lumped thermal model that combines a generalized low-Earth-orbit satellite configuration with scaling trends in subsystem heat dissipation and thermal connectivity. Using satellite mass as a scaling parameter, we show that subsystems do not become thermally critical by scaling mass alone.