Satellite and SmallSat Thermal Control Engineering

Overview

This unique 16-hour online course presents satellite thermal control for small satellites as an organized engineering discipline. Participants will learn how to design SmallSat thermal control systems based on best practices developed by the satellite industry. 

CubeSats have become increasingly popular as a tool to teach students practical spacecraft design and manufacturing, and NASA, SpaceX, Amazon, and others use CubeSats as a technology testbed for Earth imaging, space explorations, etc. A decade ago, only 10-15 SmallSats were placed in orbit annually—now 10-15 SmallSats are launched per month. 

These SmallSats (including CubeSats) are getting more and more power “hungry,” and well-designed thermal management systems are a necessity for this class of satellites. Neglecting the thermal management system could lead to the failure of CubeSat missions.

Thermal tools are needed to design a thermal management system for a CubeSat, and commercially available tools are complex and typically require a deep knowledge of thermal physics. The tools are also expensive, making them unaffordable for small companies or universities. A freeware simplified thermal tool will be shared during class, which can be used by CubeSat designers without thermal training. The defining feature of this tool is simplicity of use even for users without a thermal background. Transient and steady-state analysis are available.

Participants will finish this course with an understanding of the problems and methods encountered in SmallSat thermal design and the effect of spacecraft size and mission goals on thermal control systems. Many of the points that have made thermal control a confusing subject will be clearly explained. 

CubeSat developers will greatly benefit from this course, and a knowledge of physics and mathematics is not required. All the illustrations and numerical examples are based on actual situations.

 

Learning Objectives 

  • Give participants an understanding of the fundamentals of thermal control system for satellites
  • Describe existing in industry methods of thermal control which are used for satellite thermal design
  • Learn ways of designing thermal control based on best industry practice, in particular, for CubeSats
  • Gain hands-on experience in preliminary design and analysis of satellite thermal control system using one of the CubeSat missions
  • Understand how to use tools for CubeSat thermal management

Who Should Attend: This course is intended for systems engineers, project managers, integrated product team members, and students involved with any aspect of satellite system engineering and analysis, design and development, or test and evaluation.

Course Information:
Type of Course: Instructor-Led Short Course
Course Level: Fundamentals/Intermediate
Course Length: 2 days
AIAA CEU's available: Yes
 
Outline
Course Outline:
 
Lectures 1-2: Fundamentals – 4hrs
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Brief reminder of basic thermo-physics which is used in thermal control (conduction and radiation)
1.3 Physical, thermal, and optical properties of materials used to control spacecraft temperature (heat capacitance, heat conductance, latent heat, capillary tension, etc.)
1.4 Basic heat transfer equations governing conduction and radiation
1.5 Examples of using basic equations to calculate simple heat transfer in satellite
1.6 Orbit classification and influence on satellite thermal environment

Lectures 3-4: Workflow of designing thermal control system – 4hrs
2.1 Requirements
2.2 Conceptual design options
2.3 Preliminary analysis and trade studies
2.4 Hot and cold cases
2.5 Detailed analysis
2.6 Design verification:
  2.6.1 Development of Thermal Model and Simulations
  2.6.2 Thermo-Vacuum test

Lecture 5-6: Methods of Control of Spacecraft Thermal Environment – 3 hrs
3.1 Heaters
3.2 Radiators
  3.2.1 Fixed
  3.2.2 Deployable
3.3 Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI)
3.4 Heat Pipes (standard and advanced)
3.5 Thermal Surface Finishes e.g., paints, etc.
3.6 Mounting and Interface Thermal Conductance
3.7 Louvers
3.8 Phase Change Material (PCM)
3.9 Ablators

Lectures 6-7: Design of Thermal management for simplified CubeSat mission - 3hrs
4.1 Workflow
4.2 Hot and cold cases
4.3 Sizing of thermal system 
 
Lecture 8: Cloud based tool for CubeSat thermal analysis – 1hr
5.1 Tool structure
5.2 Tool demonstration

Lecture 8: Conclusion and Q&A – 1hr
Materials

Instructors

Dr. Boris Yendler has taught satellite related courses at many organizations, including but not limited to Purdue University, Morehead University, Santa Clara University, Khalifa University of Abu Dabi, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Wright-Petersen AirForce base, and SPAWAR Navy Base. He formed YSPM LLC, a consulting engineering company in the summer of 2011 after working at Lockheed Martin Corp. (LM) for 18 years. While at LM, Dr. Yendler led development and refinement of a thermal method for propellant estimation. Due to his work, the accuracy of thermal gauging method has significantly increased and his group received the USAF Chief of Staff Team Excellence Award. Recently, Dr. Yendler has been working on several space missions including SmallSat Lunar IceCube (Morehead university and NASA), GEO communication SmallSat (Astranis), CubeSats of different type and missions: high power, laser communication, cryo cube, etc. (US government), landing BereSheet (Israel) spacecraft on Moon surface etc. Dr. Yendler holds M.S. in Thermo and Fluid Dynamics from St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, Russia; and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering/Mathematics from St. Petersburg University, Russia. He held two post doctoral positions, Chemical Engineering Department of Stanford University and NASA Ames Research Center.
 

 

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