Spacecraft must protect their components from environmental elements and prevent excessive heating from them, this includes minimizing heat lost to space and eliminating dissipated environmental fluxes. SmallSats often employ passive thermal control elements such as multilayer insulation (MLI) blankets to maintain component temperature limits. MLI blankets serve two important purposes – they both prevent heat…
Spacecraft require a wide temperature range for survival and operations, with thermal control systems (TCS) keeping temperatures within specific limits via passive or active systems. Examples of passive systems include paints, coatings and surface finishes which alter solar absorptivity or infrared emission on surfaces required to absorb or release environmental heat, as well as second-surface…
Spacecraft thermal control systems (TCSs) ensure that a spacecraft remains within temperature limits that are appropriate to its orbit, power demand and operation. Equipment utilized includes radiators, Multi Layer Insulation blankets, two-phase devices such as heat pipes or capillary pumped loops as well as mechanical louvers and thermal switches. These systems channel heat from spacecraft…
Spacecraft equipment must operate within an acceptable temperature range to complete its mission successfully, doing this by either absorbing or rejecting heat from its environment. Hardware available to accomplish this includes multilayer insulation systems to shield equipment from excessive solar and planetary heating, thermal paints and coatings that change optical properties (such as solar absorptance…
