THERMAL DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF A SMALL SATELLITE

The purpose of the thermal design for a satellite is to maintain all of the elements of the satellite system within their temperature limits for all mission phases. Also, for evaluation of satellite thermal design it is necessary to obtain temperature distribution of all satellite components, using test or analysis. In this paper, temperature distribution of a small satellite in low earth orbit, using lumped heat parameters method, is studied. Employment of passive thermal control system helps to keep the satellite components in desired/allowed temperature limit. This paper consists of calculation of external thermal boundary conditions at all operational orbital conditions, and all mission duration. Then solution of non-linear energy equation for satellite components, that are considered as a solid mass based on lumped heat parameters, is applied. Analysis also consists of orbit altitude variation, and variation of solar constant