Active Thermal Control System for CubeSat (2024)

Numerical study of the spacecraft thermal control hardware combining solid–liquid phase change material and a heat pipe

Aerospace Science and Technology, 2013

Phase Change Material Device for Spacecraft Thermal Control

Phase change material for spacecraft thermal management. Final report, 1 September 1988-31 March 1989

Thermal Management for High Power Cubesats

2020

Thermal management systems for small satellites have traditionally been neglected entirely or only considered as an afterthought. This approach to small satellite systems design is no longer acceptable as technology has matured over the past decade and payload operational power has increased. Higher power leads to an increase in waste heat generated on-orbit. Trends in industry indicate that power demand for small satellite class (10-100 kg) can reach up to kilowatt range in the near future. A scalable Thermal Management System (TMS) has been developed which is applicable to small satellites ranging from CubeSats to ESPA class spacecraft. The TMS can handle up to 1 kW of waste heat. The TMS solution leverages breakthroughs in additive manufacturing, flexible heat pipes, and material science to dissipate extremely large quantities of waste heat in a small SWaP system. The system consists of: A rollout deployable radiator maximizing radiation of heat into space. Structurally integrate...

Thermal Analysis of a 3U-Cubesat, a Case Study of Pakal Satellite

Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Fluid Flow, Heat and Mass Transfer (FFHMT'21)

Phase Change Material for Spacecraft Thermal Management

Design and Fabrication of a Phase Change Material Heat Storage Device for the Thermal Control of Electronics Components of Space Applications

Aerospace, 2022

In this paper, the design and validation of a heat storage device based on phase change materials are presented, with the focus on improving the thermal control of micro-satellites. The main objective of the development is to provide a system that is able to keep electronics within safe temperature ranges during the operation of manoeuvres, while reducing mass and volume in comparison to other thermal control techniques. Due to the low thermal conductivity of phase change materials, the conductivity of the device as a whole is one of the major challenges of the development. This issue has been solved by means of the use of a lattice of aluminium fins. The thermal behaviour of the proposed solution is assessed with numerical simulation tools, and the results prove that the developed phase change material-based thermal control technique is able to provide the suitable integrated thermal management of micro-satellites. Fabrication challenges found in the project are also explained. Num...

Phase change materials for spacecraft thermal management

Experimental Development and Computational Optimization of Flat Heat Pipes for CubeSat Applications

Volume 10: Micro- and Nano-Systems Engineering and Packaging, 2016

Material Selection for Satellite Passive Thermal Control

For low earth orbit satellites there are generally two types of thermal control, passive control and active control, a passive system relies on conductive and radiation heat coefficient and has no moving parts or electrical power input. In this study, a model is constructed using the energy balance equations for different surfaces to compute the temperature of the satellite surfaces using explicit finite deference technique. The satellite under study was considered as a box shape with surface dimension of 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.005 m each. Data reported by Olvea et al. 1996 are used to validate the model. The validation of the model showed a good agreement between predicted temperatures and the data obtained for Brazilian satellite. The study shows that model solution does not require complex, special and expensive software platform to carry out these predictions. In addition, the effects of thermal characteristics (conductivity, emissivity and absorbtivity) of surfaces materials on the satellite surfaces temperatures are discussed to explore the possibility of a passive thermal control through selection of surfaces materials. The highest and lowest surfaces temperatures during the orbit, which is the earth oriented with one of its surfaces normal vector passes through earth center are computed. Shadow and non-shadow effects are considered as criteria for worst low and high temperatures scenarios respectively. Temperature predictions show that using Aluminized Teflon as the satellite surface which issubjected to highestheat load and polished aluminum as surface with lowest heat load but for the rest ofsatellite sidesAluminum 2024 is used, achieve temperatures values suitable for most electronic devices and payload.