Thermal design and verification for a small space remote sensing camera

Thermal control and temperature uniformity are important factors for space remote sensing cameras. This paper describes the problems with existing systems and introduces the thermal design of a space optical remote sensing camera. Firstly, based on the theory of wave-front aberration distribution, the thermal control index of a space remote sensing camera is proposed. Then on the basis of the analysis of the heat flux environment outside the camera space, the thermal optical analysis of the camera is performed by using the finite element analysis method at high and low temperature conditions. The results show that the transfer function of the optical system with the resolution of 50 lp in the full field of view is more than 0.4. The optical design index can be satisfied, and the rationality of the thermal design is verified. The simulation result meets the requirements of optical design very well. Therefore the study in this paper can be used as an important reference for other space optical systems, which has certain engineering significance. © COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.