DEGREE PROJECT IN SPACE TECHNOLOGY,

SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2016

Thermal Analysis and Control of

MIST CubeSat
SHREYAS CHANDRASHEKAR

KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Master Thesis

Thermal Analysis and Control of

MIST CubeSat

Author: Supervisor:
Shreyas Chandrashekar Andreas Berggren
Examiner:
Tomas Karlsson

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Science
in the

Department of Space and Plasma Physics

School of Electrical Engineering

February 8, 2017
 Abstract

The thermal analysis and control provides the necessary means to control the temperature
of the satellite during the harsh conditions in space. MIST CubeSat presents a challenging
task to design such a system with its various payloads and subsystems on board. This
thesis report aims to describe the modelling and design of the thermal control system
developed for MIST CubeSat in detail.

Each of these payloads and subsystems have different thermal requirements that has to
be met in order to maintain thermal equilibrium. Hence in this project, all the units are
given equal importance for the analysis to ensure the safety. A detailed thermal model
of MIST CubeSat was developed using Systema-Thermica software. With this model,
three different thermal cases such as the Hot Operational case, Cold Non-Operational
and Operational cases were analysed. Furthermore, an initial dissipation profile for all
the units present in the CubeSat was created for the thermal analysis. Based on the
temperatures obtained, a thermal control system was designed to maintain the thermal
balance between the satellite and the environment. This report also gives details of the
assumptions made at certain points of the analysis.

The thermal control system for MIST CubeSat consists of both passive and active means.
The passive means includes the use of thermal tapes on some of the payloads and subsys-
tems on board. It was observed that the passive means were not enough to maintain the
temperatures and hence active systems such as heaters were implemented for certain units.
The results indicate that not all the payloads are within the tolerable limits and hence
further development of the thermal control system is needed. Lastly the results include
the overall design changes made in the model and a conclusion along with a possibility of
future work has been discussed.

ii
 Sammanfattning

Termisk analys och kontroll förser de nödvändiga metoderna för att kontrollera temper-
aturen på satelliten under de extrema omständigheterna i rymden. MIST CubeSat pre-
senterar en utmanande uppgift i att designa ett sådant system med dess olika nyttolaster
och delsystem ombord. Denna rapport syftar till att beskriva i detaljerad modellering
och designen av den termiska kontrollen som har utvecklats för MIST CubeSat.

Var och en av dessa nyttolaster och delsystem har olika termiska krav som måste upp-
fyllas för att upprätthålla termisk jämvikt. Därför i detta projekt, alla enheter ges lika
stor betydelse för analysen för att kunna garantera dess termiska jämvikt. En detaljerad
termisk modell av MIST CubeSat har utvecklats med hjälp av Systema-THERMICA pro-
gramvara. Med denna modell, tre olika termiska fall har analyserats; Varmt operativt
fall, Kallt icke-operativt samt kallt operativa fall. Experimentens och del systemens dissi-
pationsprofil kommer ha betydelse för temperaturen av enheten och en förenklad profil för
de olika enheterna har implementerats i denna termiska modell. Baserat på de tempera-
turer som erhölls, ett termiskt styrsystem var konstruerad för att bibehålla den termiska
jämvikten mellan satelliten och omgivning. Denna rapport presenterar också detaljer om
de antaganden som gjorts vid vissa moment i analysen.

Det termiska styrsystem för MIST CubeSat består av både passiva och aktiva metoder.
Den passiva metoden inkluderar användning av termisk tejp på en del av nyttolasterna och
delsystemen ombord. Det kunde konstateras att den passiva metoden inte var tillräckligt
för att bibehålla temperaturerna och därmed aktiva system, såsom värmare användas för
vissa enheter. Resultaten tyder på att inte alla nyttolaster ligger inom acceptabla gränser
och därmed ytterligare utveckling av den termiska styrsystem behövs göras. Slutligen,
resultaten inkluderar de övergripande konstruktionsändringar som gjorts i modellen samt
en slutsats om möjlighet till framtida arbete har diskuterats.

iii
 Acknowledgement

Firstly I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Mr.Andreas Berggren

for his continuous support and guidance throughout the thesis work. His constant mo-
tivation and enthusiasm helped me to complete this work successfully. I could not have
imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my thesis.

I am very grateful to my project manager Dr.Sven Grahn for granting me this great
opportunity to work under MIST satellite project at KTH and also for his continuous
support throughout the work. His professional guidance and expertise gave me great
insights on how the real space mission is run.

Furthermore, I would like to thank Mr.Simon Görries for his excellent leadership of
the MIST student team and Project Assistant Agnes Gårdebäck for her valuable inputs
throughout the work. Also I am very thankful to rest of the team members who were
working with me during the semester.

I also would like to thank Prof.Tomas Karlsson for being my thesis examiner and providing
me with an overview of thesis work at the initial stages.

Special thanks to my close friends Jiewei Zhou, Oscar Bylund and Rutvika Acharya for
their continuous encouragement and fun times during the entire work.

Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my parents and to my friends

for providing me with unfailing support and courage throughout my years of study and
through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would
not have been possible without them. Thank you.

iv
 Contents

Abstract ii

Acknowledgement iv

List of Figures viii

List of Tables x

List of Abbreviations xii

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Aim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Report Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2 The MIST CubeSat 3

2.1 MIST Mission Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Satellite Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3 Subsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3.1 Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3.2 Electrical Power System Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3.3 On Board Computer (OBC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3.4 Magnetorquer (iMTQ’s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.5 TRXVU Transceiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.6 Antenna System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3.7 Solar Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4 Scientific Payloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4.1 CubeProp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4.2 SEUD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.4.3 MOREBAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4.4 RATEX-J . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4.5 SIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4.6 CUBES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4.7 LEGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4.8 Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.5 CubeSat Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

v
Contents

2.5.1 MIST CubeSat Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3 Theory 16
3.1 Conduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.1.1 Thermal Contact Conductance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.2 Conductive Couplings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2 Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2.1 Radiative view factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2.2 Radiative heat transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3 Space Thermal Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3.1 Solar radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3.2 Earth Albedo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3.3 Earth IR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4 Heat Capacity of the material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5 Transient Heat Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4 Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat 24

4.1 Thermal Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.1.1 Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1.2 Electrical Power System (EPS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.1.3 On Board Computer (OBC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.1.4 ISIS Magnetorquer Board (iMTQ’s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1.5 TRXVU Transceiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.6 Antenna system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.1.7 Solar Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.1.8 CubeProp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.9 SEUD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.10 MOREBAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.1.11 RATEX-J . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.1.12 SIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.1.13 CUBES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1.14 LEGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.1.15 Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

5 Thermal Analysis of MIST CubeSat 46

5.1 Thermal Requirements for MIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
5.2 Internal Heat Dissipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5.2.1 Operational Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.2.2 Non-Operational Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5.3 Thermal model analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5.3.1 Hot Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5.3.2 Cold Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

6 Thermal Control Design 52

6.1 Passive Control System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.1.1 First Surface Mirrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.1.2 Second Surface Mirrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

vi
 Contents

6.2 Active control System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

6.2.1 Heaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.3 Analysis results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.3.1 Hot Operational Case : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.3.2 Cold-Non Operational case: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
6.3.3 Cold Operational Case: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6.4 New Thermal Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

7 CONCLUSIONS 62
7.1 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.2 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

A Geometrical Model Properties 64

A.1 Material Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
A.2 Optical Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

B Internal Heat Dissipations 67

C Figures 68

Bibliography 70

vii
 List of Figures

2.1 Structure of MIST [30] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.2 NanoPower BP4 battery pack [3] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 NanoPower P31-us [4] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4 ISIS OBC board [5] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.5 ISIS Magnetorquer Board [6] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.6 ISIS TRXVU Transceiver Board [7] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.7 ISIS deployable antenna system [8] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.8 Body Mounted solar panels [9] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.9 NanoSpace CubeProp Module [CAD Model] [10][28] . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.10 Architecture of SEUD Experiment [11] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.11 Crude sketch of the MOREBAC experiment [12] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.12 Model of RATEX-J experiment [13] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.13 Schematic of the Experiment [14] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.14 Layout of the Experiment [15] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.15 LEGS Module [16] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.16 Camera Module [17] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.17 ISIS 3U Modular Structure [18] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.18 The Orbital Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.19 Body and Orbital frames in reference orbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.1 Heat conduction through a large plane wall of thickness ∆x and area A. . 17
3.2 Thermal contact conductance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3 Conductive coupling between two nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.4 Two differential areas for calculating view factors [31] . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.5 The Space environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.1 MIST Thermal Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4.2 Thermal Model of GomSpace Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.3 Thermal Model of GomSpace power system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.4 Thermal Model of ISIS OBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.5 Thermal Model of ISIS Magnetorquer board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.6 Thermal Model of ISIS TRXVU- transceiver board . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.7 Thermal Model of ISIS antenna system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.8 Thermal Model of ISIS solar panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.9 Thermal Model of NanoSpace-CubeProp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.10 Thermal Model of SEUD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

viii
 List of Figures

4.11 Thermal Model of MOREBAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

4.12 Thermal Model of RATEX-J (Inside View) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.13 Thermal Model of RATEX-J . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.14 Thermal Model of SIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.15 Thermal Model of CUBES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.16 Thermal Model of Piezo-LEGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.17 Thermal Model of Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

5.1 Trajectory of the MIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

5.2 Temperature definitions for Thermal Control System (TCS) . . . . . . . . 48
5.3 Subsystem-Heat Dissipation Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.4 Operational Case-Heat Dissipation Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

6.1 Concept of First Surface Mirror (FSM) [25] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

6.2 Concept of Second Surface Mirror (SSM) [25] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.3 Typical heaters used for the satellites [26] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.4 Temperature limit plot for Hot Operational Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.5 Temperature limit plot for Cold Non-Operational Case . . . . . . . . . . . 57
6.6 Temperature limit plot for Cold Operational Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6.7 New Thermal Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

A.1 Materials used for MIST CubeSat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

A.2 Optical coatings used for MIST CubeSat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

C.1 Thermal temperatures of MIST CubeSat at time zero for the Hot Opera-
tional case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
C.2 Thermal temperatures of MIST CubeSat at time zero for the Cold Non-
Operational case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
C.3 Thermal temperatures of MIST CubeSat at time zero for the Cold Opera-
tional case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

ix
 List of Tables

4.1 Model details for the batteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4.2 Thermal couplings for the batteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.3 Model details for the power system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.4 Thermal couplings for the power system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.5 Model details for the OBC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.6 Thermal couplings for the OBC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.7 Model details for the Magnetorquers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.8 Thermal couplings for the Magnetorquers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.9 Model details for the TRXVU transceiver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.10 Thermal couplings for the TRXVU transceiver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.11 Model details for the antenna system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.12 Thermal couplings for the antenna system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.13 Model details for the Solar panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.14 Thermal couplings for the Solar panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.15 Model details for the CubeProp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.16 Thermal couplings for the CubeProp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.17 Model details for the SEUD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.18 Thermal couplings for the SEUD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.19 Model details for the MOREBAC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.20 Thermal couplings for the MOREBAC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.21 Model details for the RATEX-J. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.22 Thermal couplings for the RATEX-J. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.23 Model details for the SIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.24 Thermal couplings for the SIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.25 Model details for the CUBES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.26 Thermal couplings for the CUBES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.27 Model details for the Piezo-LEGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.28 Thermal couplings for the CUBES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.29 Model details for the Camera. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.30 Thermal couplings for the Camera. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

5.1 Temperature requirements for MIST Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

6.1 Thermal temperatures for Hot Operational Case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

6.2 Thermal temperatures for Cold Non Operational Case. . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6.3 Thermal temperatures for Cold Operational Case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

x
 List of Tables

A.1 Material properties used in geometric model. [1] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

A.2 Optical properties used in geometric model. (BOL Values) [1] . . . . . . . 66

B.1 Power dissipation values for payloads during operating & idle conditions. . 67
B.2 Power dissipation values for Subsystems during operating & idle conditions. 67

xi
List of Abbreviations

BOL Beginning Of Life

CUBES CUbesat x-ray Background Explorer using Scintillators
EOL End Of Life
ESA European Space Agency
IR Infra Red
ISIS Innovative Solutions In Space
ICD Interface Control Document
JUICE JUpiter ICy moon Explorer
KTH Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan
MIST MIniature Student saTellite
MOREBAC Microfluidic Orbital REsuscitation of BACteria
OBC On Board Computer
PCB Printed Circuit Board
RATEX-J RAdiation Test EXperiment for Juice
SEUD Single Event Upset Detector
SiC Silicon Carbide

xii
 1
Introduction

MIST (MIniature Student SaTellite) is a 3U CubeSat being primarily built by the students
of KTH Royal Institute of Technology under the supervision of Dr.Sven Grahn. This
project started in late 2014 by the initiative of KTH Space Center. It is the first satellite
by KTH and is intended to be launched in the year 2017. The CubeSat has eight payloads
of different technical and scientific experiments provided by KTH and Swedish Industries.
One of the primary aims of this initiative is to provide the students with a sense of real
life projects in the area of space technology.

The payloads within the CubeSat are named accordingly as CubeProp, SEUD, MORE-
BAC, RATEX-j, CUBES, SIC, LEGS and finally a Camera. Due to the presence of several
payloads, there are many challenges encountered while designing the CubeSat and one
among them is the thermal analysis. The environmental factors of the satellite during
its mission such as the radiation from Sun, Earth and the influence of sun lit and eclipse
side along with the internal heat dissipation from the components inside forms an integral
part of the design considerations. Besides the subsystems, each of these payloads have
different temperature ranges within which they have to be maintained for functioning
properly. Once the satellite is placed in orbit, it undergoes extreme fluctuations in tem-
peratures that can affect this performance. Hence it is very important for the satellite to
have a reliable thermal control subsystem to guarantee the thermal requirements in every
possible way.

1.1 Aim

The main aim of this thesis is to perform a detailed thermal analysis of the MIST CubeSat
through simulations in Systema-Thermica and design a suitable thermal control system
based on those simulation results. This thesis work entails the detailed description of the
thermal model built and the simulation results for hot and cold cases.

1
1. Introduction

1.2 Boundaries

The current thesis work offers the possibility of exploring ways to design a thermal control
subsystem for MIST CubeSat. However, considering the available resources and the time
constraints, the thesis work is carried out under certain boundaries that are defined below.

• The thesis work only intends to present the simulation results of one such design of
the thermal control system and possible suggestions for further design.

• The thesis work only presents the simulation results of the topic using Thermica
software and thus no experimental work will be accomplished.

• The thesis will include only the implementation results for the model built and there
will be no validation of results presented.

1.3 Report Outline

This report gives a detailed information about the thermal modelling and control of MIST
CubeSat. In Chapter 1, a brief introduction about the topic and aim of this thesis work is
described. Chapter 2 gives a detailed description about the MIST satellite along with its
components. In Chapter 3, a detailed write up about the thermal mathematical model is
explained. Chapter 4 contains the simulation results for the cases analyzed. In Chapter 5,
the thermal control aspects for the MIST is discussed. Lastly a conclusion for the analysis
and possible recommendations for future work is included along with the appendix and
references.

2
 2
The MIST CubeSat

The objective of a thermal study is often to understand the behaviour and performance
of a satellite structure. For efficient analysis of any satellite, a thermal engineer must be
aware of the intended mission and its characteristics along with the detailed overview of
the entire structure of the CubeSat.

2.1 MIST Mission Characteristics

The mission objective of MIST CubeSat is to mainly provide students with hands on
experience in satellite design and to demonstrate the scientific experiments in space.
MIST is the first mission initiated by KTH with an expected mission life time of one year.
One of the reference orbits is defined for the LTDN of 1045 at an altitude between 636.8
- 650.8 Km and an inclination of 97.9430 degrees. Furthermore, it is a sun synchronous
orbit where in the ground track repeats every 4 days or 59 revolutions around the Earth
[2].

However due to the presence of several payloads and other external factors, the launch
will be delayed to early 2018 as of current status.

2.2 Satellite Overview

MIST is a 3U CubeSat with the dimensions of 10x10x30 cm3 . The satellite comprises of
both subsystems and the payloads inside the structure. All of these systems will mostly
consist of Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) as a base line structure. The various subsystems
used in the CubeSat are Batteries, power supply unit, On Board Computer, transceiver,
Magnetorquer and finally an antenna system. These subsystems are an essential part of
the satellite mainly required for keeping the satellite in orbit.

The several payloads in MIST as mentioned before are CubeProp, SEUD, MOREBAC,
RATEX-J, CUBES, SIC, LEGS, and lastly a Camera. A display of the entire satellite
without the body mounted solar panels is shown in the Figure 2.1 below. The outer

3
2. The MIST CubeSat

structure consists of two deployable solar panels at the top and body mounted solar
panels on all the sides. The detailed study of these systems together is required in order
to model them individually and predict their thermal behaviour for such a mission.

Figure 2.1: Structure of MIST [30]

2.3 Subsystems

The middle stack of the satellite holds the various subsystems required. The entire struc-
ture along with these above mentioned subsystems are procured from ISIS (Innovative
Solutions In Space) based in The Netherlands. All these components are off the shelf
and are readily available from ISIS. The components follow PC104 standards and have
specific dimensions in relation with the CubeSat structure built by ISIS.

2.3.1 Batteries

Batteries are generally used on board the satellites to make sure it meets the power
requirements during the detumbling and eclipse phases of the orbit. They help in storing,
regulating and distributing the necessary power required to complete the mission without
any hazard. The batteries used for space applications are generally rechargeable ones.
MIST intends to use NanoPower BP4 battery pack from GomSpace which is shown in
Figure 2.2. There are four lithium ion cells attached to the PCB which are repacked with
some insulation material such as kapton and glued with aluminium brackets for mechanical
and thermal stability. These batteries also have built in heaters and temperature sensors
to regulate the thermal constraints in space [3]. Although batteries can operate over wide
temperature ranges, care must be taken during charging and discharging process. With
regard to thermal design of the satellite, batteries are known to be the most sensitive and
critical component.

4
 2. The MIST CubeSat

Figure 2.2: NanoPower BP4 battery pack [3]

2.3.2 Electrical Power System Board

The Electrical Power System (EPS) board used in MIST is Nanopower P31-us from
GomSpace which is specially designed for small, low cost satellites with power demands
from 1 - 30 W [4]. It acts as a power converter to condition the output power from solar
panels to charge the provided lithium-ion batteries.

Figure 2.3: NanoPower P31-us [4]

Figure 2.3 shows the EPS board currently used for MIST and is considered to be an
important unit that has to be thermally stable.

2.3.3 On Board Computer (OBC)

The On Board Computer used for MIST is from ISIS which is intended for space applica-
tions. It provides powerful computing functions by running specialized software to control
and manage the operations of the satellite [5]. It helps in the communication between the
On-board subsystems and ground station. When the ground station is not in reach, OBC
takes over the control of all critical operations on board. Figure 2.4 shows the OBC board
along with the daughter board used. Having broader temperature ranges, this subsystem
is unlikely to be any kind of concern for the thermal analysis.

5
2. The MIST CubeSat

Figure 2.4: ISIS OBC board [5]

2.3.4 Magnetorquer (iMTQ’s)

The attitude and determination control system for MIST comprises of the magnetorquer
alone since it is a magnetically controlled satellite. It is solely responsible for keeping
the CubeSat dynamically stable. The magnetorquer is again procured from ISIS which is
specifically designed for CubeSat applications.

Figure 2.5: ISIS Magnetorquer Board [6]

This magnetorquer is equipped with internal 3-axis magnetometer, 3 magnetorquers and

a micro-controller as shown in Figure 2.5. The power dissipation is upto 1.2 W and the
broader temperature qualifications for this board makes it a thermally stable component
compared to batteries [6].

2.3.5 TRXVU Transceiver

The ISIS TRXVU is a CubeSat standard compatible transceiver module used my MIST
for communication purposes. The module is as shown in Figure 2.6. It performs the
function of both transmitter and receiver at appropriate frequencies. This has the highest
power dissipation of 4.0 W compared to the other subsystems [7]. However this power is
only consumed during transmission and after which it changes to idle mode when inactive.

6
 2. The MIST CubeSat

Figure 2.6: ISIS TRXVU Transceiver Board [7]

The thermal connections between this module and the structure should be properly pro-
vided in order to avoid any over heating of the components.

2.3.6 Antenna System

The ISIS deployable antenna system used for MIST consists of four memory alloy tape
antennas upto 55 cm length which can deploy from all four sides of the structure upon
command [8]. The main purpose of this antenna system is to deploy the stowed antennas
so that it can be used for RF transmissions.

Figure 2.7: ISIS deployable antenna system [8]

This antenna system has a thermal mass of 100 gms and has a broader temperature
requirements. Figure 2.7 shows the exact model that will be used for the MIST CubeSat.

2.3.7 Solar Panels

The solar panels are on board the satellite for power supply. There are two deployable
solar panels at the top of the satellite and the rest of the solar panels are mounted on each

7
2. The MIST CubeSat

side of the CubeSat. Both the deployable and body mounted solar panels are designed
in such a way that it is in interface with the CubeSat electrical power system (EPS) and
On board Computer (OBC) [9]. Figure 2.8 shows the solar cells and the body mounted
solar panels for a dummy structure. The solar cells employed are used generally for space
applications and hence they can withstand higher temperatures. The deployable solar
panels are hinged at the top of the CubeSat structure and are deployed after detumbling
process in space.

Figure 2.8: Body Mounted solar panels [9]

2.4 Scientific Payloads

The upper and the lower stack of the CubeSat holds the various payloads that are provided
by the experimenters. There are eight payloads that will be carried to space for various
scientific experiments. A detailed overview of these payloads will be discussed in this
section since it plays an important role in the thermal design.

2.4.1 CubeProp

CubeProp is the propulsion module from Nanospace company in Uppsala, Sweden. It is

half the unit (0.5 U) in size and is as shown in Figure 2.9. The purpose of this experiment
is to get a flight heritage for this module so that it can be used specifically for CubeSat
applications in the future. The goal will be to use the propulsion system in such a way that
precision control of the satellite can be demonstrated and also to test the total impulse
capability of the system to be around 40 Ns [10]. The module consists mainly of thrusters,
propellant tank, valves, filters and electronic boards. The main concern from the thermal
standpoint is the propellant tank where in the fuel used is butane.

8
 2. The MIST CubeSat

Figure 2.9: NanoSpace CubeProp Module [CAD Model] [10][28]

The tank has to be thermally controlled within the required temperatures such that it
does not over heat or freeze the fuel during the mission. Hence the CubeProp is an
important payload and is one of the critical units in MIST that has to be maintained.

2.4.2 SEUD

SEUD stands for Single Event Upset Detector which is developed by KTH. The purpose
of the experiment is twofold, one is to test the in house concept of self healing computer
system in space to see if it will be able to heal itself by correcting faults during run time.
The second purpose is to measure the expected SEU frequency in near Earth orbit.The
payload is intended to be a simple FPGA (field-programmable gate array) board and the
experiment layout is as shown in Figure 2.10.

Figure 2.10: Architecture of SEUD Experiment [11]

This experiment is unlikely to be considered as a critical unit in terms of thermal condi-

tions, nevertheless it has to be within the limits. The temperature requirements for this
unit is much wider than compared to others and also has a bit higher power dissipation
of upto 1.2 W [11].

9
2. The MIST CubeSat

2.4.3 MOREBAC

MOREBAC stands for Microfluidic Orbital Resuscitation of Bacteria is an experiment

that is proposed by the Division of Proteomics and Nanobiotechnology, KTH. The main
aim of this payload is to transport freeze dried micro-organisms into orbit, resuscitate
them through media addition and finally measure their growth characteristics in orbit
after a certain storage period [12]. The experiment is still in its development stage and
hence only the sketch of the experiment is available as of now which is as shown in
Figure 2.11. This experiment is also one of the most critical unit because of its narrow
temperature demands. The bacteria can only sustain within the thermal limits for this
experiment to work. Therefore this unit is expected to be the driving factor for thermal
design and control.

Figure 2.11: Crude sketch of the MOREBAC experiment [12]

2.4.4 RATEX-J

RATEX-J stands for RAdiation Test EXperiment for Juice mission proposed by Swedish
institute of space physics in Kiruna, Sweden. It is a prototype which consists of three
different detectors to be implemented in the JDC (Jovian plasma Dynamics and Com-
position) instrument for ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) mission. The initial
model of the experiment is as shown in Figure 2.12.

Figure 2.12: Model of RATEX-J experiment [13]

10
 2. The MIST CubeSat

The three different particle detectors are Solid State Detector (SSD) , Multi-Channel
Plate (MCP) and Ceramic Channel Electron Multiplier (CCEM) [13]. This experiment is
exposed continuously towards space for the experiment to be successful and therefore the
side which has detectors does not have any body mounted solar panels covering them.

2.4.5 SIC

The SiC (Silicon Carbide) experiment is intended to study the silicon carbide material in
harsh space conditions for future use in electronics. This application has also been already
suggested for a Venus lander mission [14]. The payload consists of a SiC transistor, a
Graphene transistor and a Silicon transistor on simple PCB. Through the MIST mission,
it is being tested for in orbit low TRL (Technology Readiness Level) technologies.

Figure 2.13: Schematic of the Experiment [14]

From the thermal standpoint, this payload is unlikely to be considered as critical because
of its broader temperature range. Since this experiment is still in its development phase,
only the schematic of the experiment is shown in the Figure 2.13.

2.4.6 CUBES

CUBES stands for CUbesat x-ray Background Explorer using Scintillators is an experi-
ment proposed by Particle and Astroparticle Physics group at KTH. The main purpose
of this experiment is to study the in orbit radiation environment using a detector com-
prising a silicon photomultiplier coupled to scintillator material. The studies will focus on
possible radio-activation, induced fluorescence and radiation damage for the scintillator

11
2. The MIST CubeSat

materials [15]. This experiment has very narrow temperature range within which it has
to be maintained and also the scintillators should be exposed to space all the time. This
is also an important payload to be considered for thermal design. The overview of the
experiment is shown in Figure 2.14.

Figure 2.14: Layout of the Experiment [15]

2.4.7 LEGS

The piezo LEGS experiment is proposed by the company Piezomotor AB in Uppsala,

Sweden. The aim of this experiment is to test the piezomotor applications in space. It is
of interest to observe that the motor works in the vacuum filled radiation environment.
Finally the test will be to observe the motors function over time (several months) to check
for possible change of performance and the distance the motor can work [16].

(a) Driver Board of Peizo

Motor (b) Piezo Motor

Figure 2.15: LEGS Module [16]

The payload consists of the driver board and the piezo motor as shown in Figure 2.15a
and 2.15b . The thermal conditions required are feasible but since the experiment is
positioned with CUBES experiment, it is also exposed to space continuously.

12
 2. The MIST CubeSat

2.4.8 Camera

The camera intended to be used in MIST is Raspberry Pi camera as of now. The goal
of this experiment is to capture and reconstruct high quality images from MIST. The
images will be captured using High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques, compressed using
a new learning based compression method adapting to the input data, and processed using
compressive image reconstruction techniques [17]. The final images of the camera will be
displayed at Tekniska Museet in Stockholm. The camera module of the MIST is situated
at the lower stack and is facing the Earth (Nadir pointing). Thermal management of this
payload is also equally important as a whole. Figure 2.16 shows the currently considered
Raspberry Pi camera module connected to Raspberry Pi.

Figure 2.16: Camera Module [17]

2.5 CubeSat Structure

MIST intends to use the ISIS modular structure which is of the CubeSat standards. The
ISIS CubeSat STS (STructural Subsystem) is built in such a way that the PCBs can be
mounted on to a set of four ribs. These structural ribs interface with side frames. Figure
2.17 shows the intended MIST structure delivered by ISIS.

Figure 2.17: ISIS 3U Modular Structure [18]

The rails on the outside are black anodized painted to have absorptivity to emissivity

13
2. The MIST CubeSat

ratio equal to 1 for a better thermal stability [18]. The structure is according to CubeSat
standards and hence it must withstand the harsh temperature conditions in space.

2.5.1 MIST CubeSat Orientation

The CubeSat’s direction of orientation and the coordinate frames are very important
for a thermal engineer as it is to an attitude control engineer. The direction of travel
for the CubeSat will determine which face of the satellite is experiencing maximum and
minimum solar exposure. Along with the direction of travel, it is also important to know
the placements of payloads within the CubeSat which are placed according to the criteria
required for the experiment. The orbital frame (U,V,W) is defined as follows :

• U is along the direction of the radius vector (Zenith) from the Earth’s center to the
satellite.

• V is perpendicular to U and points in the general direction of orbital motion.

• W is perpendicular to the orbital plane and completes the coordinate system. Figure
2.18 shows the orbital frame of reference stated.

Figure 2.18: The Orbital Frame

The particle detector experiments like the RATEX-J and the CUBES need to be placed
in the dark side of the satellite where there is minimum exposure to the Sun. Hence these
particle detectors are placed in -X direction which point in -W direction of the orbital
plane in a Sun synchronous orbit specified earlier. With regard to the Camera, it is always
facing the Earth and hence is placed on the -Z face (Nadir pointing) and this is pointing
in the -U direction of the orbital plane. Lastly, it is observed that -Y direction is aligned
with the +V direction. Figure 2.19 shows the orientation of body and orbital frames in
the reference orbit described in section 3.1.

14
 2. The MIST CubeSat

Figure 2.19: Body and Orbital frames in reference orbit

Since the experiments like RATEX-J and CUBES are facing the -X direction and cannot
be shadowed by the deployable solar panels, they are made to be deployed from the Y
faces and are pointing towards +Z direction of the CubeSat. In addition to this, the
experiments have to be exposed to space and hence there is no body mounted solar panel
in the -X direction of the lower stack. The orientation of the antennas from the work by
Bsc. thesis students of MIST shows that the shorter element of the antenna should be
along the ± Y direction and the longer elements should be along the ± X direction [19].

15
 3
Theory

Transfer of energy is one of the basic phenomenons that is observed everywhere in the
universe. Heat is a form of this energy that can be transferred from one system to
another system as a result of temperature difference. There are three modes of heat
transfer mechanisms [22] that are usually observed such as

• Conduction

• Convection

• Radiation

Conductive and radiative heat transfer are the main modes of transfer mechanisms within
a spacecraft in space. Convection is not generally observed in space because all the
components of the spacecraft are in vacuum. Each of these phenomenons are discussed
except for convection as to how they affect the spacecraft in those harsh conditions of
space.

3.1 Conduction

Conduction is defined as the transfer of energy from the more energetic particles of a
substance to the adjacent less energetic particles as a result of interactions between the
particles. The rate of heat conduction through the medium depends on geometry of the
medium, thickness, material of the medium and finally the temperature difference across
the medium.

Consider a steady state conduction through a large plane wall of thickness ∆x =L and the
temperature difference across the wall is ∆T = T2 − T1 as shown in the Figure 3.1. The
rate of heat conduction through a plane layer is proportional to the temperature difference
across the layer and heat transfer area but is inversely proportional to the thickness of
the layer.

KA(T1 − T2 ) ∆T dT
Q̇ = = −KA = −KA (W ) (3.1)
∆x ∆x dx

16
 3. Theory

Figure 3.1: Heat conduction through a large plane wall of thickness ∆x and
area A.

where K is thermal conductivity in mKW

and A is cross-sectional area of the surface in m2 .
Now this is called the Fourier’s law of heat conduction. The relation 3.1 indicates that
the rate of heat conduction in a direction is proportional to the temperature gradient in
that direction. The negative sign ensures that the heat transfer in the positive x direction
is a positive quantity.

3.1.1 Thermal Contact Conductance

This is a property where it describes the ability to conduct heat flow between two bodies.
Consider two bodies A1 and A2 in contact where in heat flows from the hotter body to
the colder body as shown in Figure 3.2. Now the heat flow observed between the two
bodies A1 and A2 can be obtained from the Equation 3.2 :

Figure 3.2: Thermal contact conductance

(T1 − T3 )
Q̇ = ∆XA1 ∆XA2
(W ) (3.2)
KA1 A
+ 1
hc A
+ KA2 A

17
3. Theory

where T1 and T3 are the temperatures at the end of each bodies and ∆XA1 ∆XA2 are
the distances through which the heat has conducted. Also hc is the thermal contact
conductance and A is the contact area.

3.1.2 Conductive Couplings

While performing the thermal analysis, the CubeSat is descretized into several number of
nodes for each of the parts modelled. These nodes in turn have conductive heat transfer
between them that is taken into account. The conductive heat transfer between two
surfaces in contact form a coupling. For example, consider two surfaces A1 and A2 in
contact with each other where in the nodes are present at the centre of each surface as
shown in the Figure 3.3. The conductive coupling between two nodes can be obtained
from the Equation 3.1 as follows :

Figure 3.3: Conductive coupling between two nodes

KA
GA1 /A2 = ( )A /A (W/K) (3.3)
dx 1 2

1
GLA1 →A2 = (W/K) (3.4)
1
G A1
+ 1
G A2

where GA1 /A2 is the conductance of node A1 or node A2 and dx is the distance traversed by
the heat. The GLA1 →A2 denotes conductive coupling between the two nodes as represented
in the Figure 3.3. The value of this thermal conductance depends on the material of
the surface, contact pressure between the surfaces, size of the area in contact, surface
cleanliness and roughness of the material. The various conductive couplings present in
the thermal model are fed in manually for Systema-Thermica software to aid in the
calculation of temperatures.

18
 3. Theory

3.2 Radiation

Radiation is the energy emitted by matter in the form of electromagnetic waves (or pho-
tons) as a result of the changes in the electronic configurations of the atoms or molecules.
In case of heat transfers due to this phenomenon, all bodies above absolute zero emit
thermal radiation. The radiative heat transfer from a black body surface is given by the
Stefan-Boltzmann law as :

Q̇max = σAT 4 (W ) (3.5)

where σ = 5.67 ∗ 10− 8 W/m2 K 4 is the Stefan Boltzmann constant, A is the area of the
surface in m2 and T is the temperature in K [20]. However this is an ideal case for a
black body. The radiative heat transfer from the real surfaces is less than the radiation
emitted by black body and is expressed as :

Q̇emit = σAT 4 (W ) (3.6)

where  is the emissivity of the surface. This property is defined as the ratio between
energy that the gray body emits to the energy emission it would have if it were a black
body. Another important property of the surface is known as absorptivity denoted by α
which is the fraction of the radiation energy incident on a surface that is absorbed by the
surface.

3.2.1 Radiative view factors

The radiative heat exchange depends on the orientation of the two surfaces relative to
each other. The view factor also known as shape factor is the one which describes this
orientation.

Figure 3.4: Two differential areas for calculating view factors [31]

19
3. Theory

Consider two surfaces having differential areas dA1 and dA2 as shown in the Figure 3.4.
The distance between the two surfaces is S and the angles between the surface normals
(n1 and n2) and the line S is θ1 and θ2 respectively. The differential view factor dFdA1 →dA2
is given by the expression as
cosθ1 cosθ2
dFdA1 →dA2 = dA2 (3.7)
πS 2

Th exact solution for the above equation after solving can be finally written as

1 Z Z cosθ1 cosθ2
FA1 →A2 = dA2 dA1 (3.8)
A1 A1 A2 πS 2
Equation 3.8 accounts for the effects of orientation on radiative heat transfer between two
surfaces. It is an independent quantity which is purely geometrical and does not depend
on temperature.

3.2.2 Radiative heat transfer

The radiative heat transfer between two nodes A1 and A2 within the spacecraft can be
expressed as follows :

Q̇A1 →A2 = GRA1 →A2 σ(TA4 1 − TA4 2 ) (W ) (3.9)

where Q̇A1 →A2 is the heat flow from node A1 to A2 , GRA1 →A2 is the radiative coupling
(also known as Radiative Exchange Factor (REF)) in W/K 4 between those two nodes
and TA1 and TA2 are temperatures in node A1 and A2 respectively. Now the radiative
coupling is expressed as :
GRA1 →A2 = A1 BA1 →A2 AA1 (3.10)
where A1 is the emissivity of node A1 , BA1 →A2 is the Gebhart factor from node A1 to
A2 and AA1 is the area of that node. Now the Gebhart factor can be calculated from the
expression shown in Equation 3.11
N
BA1 →A2 = FA1 →A2 ∗ A2 + ((1 − Aj ∗ FA1 j ∗ BjA2 ) (3.11)
X

j=1

where FA1 →A2 is the radiative view factor discussed in section 3.2.1 and A2 is the emissivity
of node A2 . The radiative couplings along with the view factors and Gebhart factors are
calculated automatically by Systema-Thermica with the use of Monte Carlo Ray Tracing
method and is later supplied to the Thermisol solver for temperature calculations.

3.3 Space Thermal Environment

The environment for the spacecraft play an important role in the thermal management
system. The main sources for the imbalance of the thermal system of the spacecraft are

20
 3. Theory

due to solar radiation, Earth Albedo and Earth IR. The temperature surrounding the
satellite in space is 2.7K and thus serves as the harsh environment [1]. Figure 3.5 shows
the main sources of heat in space.

Figure 3.5: The Space environment

3.3.1 Solar radiation

Sunlight is a major source of heating that takes place on the satellite. The way in which it
affects the spacecraft depends on the distance from the Sun. During summer solstice, the
Earth is farthest from the Sun and it receives low intensity of solar radiation up to 1322
W/m2 but during winter solstice, the Earth is closest to the Sun and hence the intensity
is very high up to 1414 W/m2 [21]. This is because of the elliptical orbit of the Earth.
Heat transferred due to this is given by :

Q̇A1 ,solar = αA1 Ssolar AA1 (W ) (3.12)

where Q̇A1 ,solar is the heat input from the solar radiation to the node A1 , αA1 is the
absorptivity of the node A1 , Ssolar is the solar flux constant in W/m2 which is defined as
the amount of incoming solar radiation per unit area that would be incident on a plane
perpendicular to the rays, at a distance of one astronomical unit (AU) and AA1 is the
area of the node perpendicular to the Sun.

3.3.2 Earth Albedo

Sunlight reflecting off the Earth or any planet for that matter is called Albedo. It is
actually the fraction of the incident sunlight that is reflected off the surface of the Earth.

21
3. Theory

Usually the reflectivity is greater over continental regions than oceanic regions and gen-
erally increases with decreasing local solar elevation angle and increasing cloud coverage.
So in the presence of snow and ice coverage, decreasing solar elevation angle, increasing
cloud coverage, Albedo also tends to increase with latitude. As the spacecraft moves
away from the sub solar point, the albedo flux reaching the spacecraft decreases. The
heat transferred due to Albedo radiation is expressed as :

REarth
Q̇A1 ,Albedo = αA1 Ssolar aAA1 (W ) (3.13)
(REarth + h)2

where QA1 ,Albedo is the heat input from the Albedo radiation, a is the dimensionless Albedo
constant, REarth is the radius of the Earth and h is the altitude of the spacecraft. The
average albedo observed is around 30% [1].

3.3.3 Earth IR

All the incident light on the Earth’s surface not reflected as Albedo is absorbed by Earth
and eventually re-emitted to space. This re-emitted energy is known as Earth IR. The
intensity depends on the local temperature of Earth’s surface and also the cloud coverage.
At regions of warmer temperatures, the intensity of IR from Earth is higher but at regions
of lower temperatures, the intensity is lower. Also it depends on the cloud coverage. In
the warmer regions with more cloud coverage, the intensity is again low because of the
blocking due to clouds. The heat transferred due to Earth IR is as follows :
REarth
Q̇A1 ,Earth−IR = A1 SEarth−IR AA1 (W ) (3.14)
(REarth + h)2

where the A1 is the emissivity of the node A1 , SEarth−IR is the Earth IR flux in W/m2 .
The average value observed for Earth IR is 236 W/m2 [1].

3.4 Heat Capacity of the material

Heat Capacity is basically defined as the ratio of the heat added or removed from the
object or material to the resulting change in temperature. The relation shows how the
thermal capacity for any material is calculated :

Q
C= (J/K) (3.15)
∆T

where C is heat capacity, Q is the heat loss and ∆T is change in temperature. Now
for a specific node A1 with density ρA1 (kg/m3 ), volume VA1 (m3 ) and specific heat csp
(J/kgK), the heat capacity can be calculated as shown :

22
 3. Theory

CA1 = csp ρA1 VA1 (J/K) (3.16)

The temperature is dependent on this quantity wherein the temperature change decreases
if the heat capacity is higher.

3.5 Transient Heat Equation

The thermal analysis for a spacecraft is generally considered to be a transient process

since the concept of heat going in is equal to heat leaving the system is not always true.
The transient analysis accounts for the heat storage in the spacecraft as well. Hence the
thermal energy balance equation [20] can be written as :

N N
dTi
= Q̇int,i + Q̇ext,i − GLi,j (Ti − Tj ) − GRi,j σ(Ti4 − Tj4 ) (3.17)
X X
Ci
dt i,j i,j

Equation 3.17 refers to generic nodes i, j in a N-node discretized spacecraft where in

i, j = A1 , A2 , A3 ...etc. and it includes all the heat inputs experienced by a spacecraft.
On the left hand side, there is the heat input due to thermal capacity whereas on the
right hand side, there is the internal heat dissipation from the various components. The
external heat inputs are the radiation factors in the environment and finally the heat
transfers due to conductive and radiative couplings.

23
 4
Thermal Modelling of MIST
CubeSat

This chapter deals with the development of thermal model for MIST CubeSat which will
later be simulated to study the thermal behaviour of the MIST during its mission. The
entire modelling and simulation is performed with the use of Systema Thermica software
which is developed by Airbus Defence and Space [24]. In this process, there are two types
of models built, one is the Geometrical Model Management (GMM) and second is the
Thermal Model Management (TMM). The GMM includes the geometrical build up of
the model MIST in Thermica along with the meshing of geometry into nodes. The TMM
however includes the mathematical description of capacitances and conductive couplings
for each of the nodes along with dissipation profile for each of the components in MIST.

4.1 Thermal Model

The thermal model of the satellite contains the detailed description about the geometry
of MIST CubeSat, materials and optical properties for each of the components used and
the thermal couplings between those components.

Figure 4.1: MIST Thermal Model

24
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

The thermal model of the complete MIST CubeSat is as shown in Figure 4.1. This model
consists of all the subsystems and payloads present within the MIST CubeSat and each
of these systems are discussed in detail. Note that the mesh geometries used are mostly
square plate mesh for PCBs, mounting boards and other box shaped structures whereas
the connection stack is meshed as rectangular surface with some thickness. Other mesh
geometries include cylinders and discs shaped structures only. Most of the materials used
in all the models are assumed accordingly as the information regarding them was still not
available when this work was done. All the parts are modelled in such a way that the
surfaces are exactly in touch with each other as defined in the original design.

The PCBs make up most of the CubeSat and hence the thermal properties are very
important when considered. A PCB is generally made up of alternating layers of copper
and that of FR4 which act as the insulation. For the MIST CubeSat, eight layers of copper
with 50 % of it on outer layers and 40 % of it on the inner layers has been considered. Also
the total thickness of the PCB is taken as 1.6 mm with the calculated average thermal
conductivity of 20.5 W/mK. Lastly the average density of 2223 Kg/m3 and specific heat
of 589 J/KgK has been calculated with the same principle from thermal conductivity
calculator which was developed in the previous work on thermal analysis by Andreas
Berggren [23].

4.1.1 Batteries

There are four battery cells which are cylindrical in shape modelled on the PCB along
with a connection stack as shown in Figure 4.2. The thermal couplings observed for this
battery is between the cells and PCB, connection stack and PCB and finally PCB with
the structure rods. The coupling between the PCB and battery cells includes the coupling
of thermal strap which is the main reason for giving mechanical stability to the system.
This thermal strap is not geometrically modelled but mathematically considered in the
calculations of couplings. The materials used for the batteries along with the capacitances
obtained can be seen in the Table 4.1.

Figure 4.2: Thermal Model of GomSpace Batteries

25
4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Table 4.1: Model details for the batteries.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

4 Battery cells Aluminum 6082 cyl. nodes = 12 cyl. node = 5

disc nodes = 8 disc node = 1
PCB Copper 9 2
Connection stack Copper 3 5

The optical coating used for battery cells is Kapton 0.5 mil as mentioned in the interface
documents. The PCB has FR-4 coating whereas the connection stack is of copper itself.
The conductance coupling between the mentioned parts are shown in Table 4.2. The
values for the conductances represent for one element under consideration.

Table 4.2: Thermal couplings for the batteries.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

Battery cells PCB 2

PCB Connection stack 0.4
PCB Rods 0.1

4.1.2 Electrical Power System (EPS)

The NanoPower P31-us from GomSpace is modelled as a flat PCB with connection stack
and small boxes representing the parts of the PCB. The thermal couplings observed are
between PCB and the connection stack, PCB with the other boxes and PCB with the
structure rods as well. These small boxes are nothing but the electrical units/components
part of the PCB. Figure 4.3 shows the thermal model of the NanoPower P31-us built in
thermica.

Table 4.3 presents the specific materials used along with their capacitances. The optical
properties for each of these surfaces are same as the materials used and no special coating
is required for this subsystem. The thermal coupling obtained is presented in Table 4.4.

26
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Figure 4.3: Thermal Model of GomSpace power system

Table 4.3: Model details for the power system.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

5 small boxes Aluminum 6082 5 2

PCB Copper 9 2
Connection stack Copper 3 2

Table 4.4: Thermal couplings for the power system.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

Small boxes PCB 4

PCB Connection stack 1
PCB Rods 0.1

4.1.3 On Board Computer (OBC)

The On Board Computer is from ISIS and it is modelled as two PCBs stacked together as
shown in Figure 4.4. The main PCB is coupled to the connection stacks and the cylinder
supports that is in turn coupled with the daughter board. Finally the main electronic
board of the OBC is supported by the rods running through. Table 4.5 shows the details
of the material used for such a system along with the capacitances per node obtained.
The optical properties used for this system is the material itself and no coating is applied
as such. The conductances between the couplings mentioned are given in Table 4.6.

27
4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Figure 4.4: Thermal Model of ISIS OBC

Table 4.5: Model details for the OBC.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

Cylinder supports Aluminum 6082 8 0.2

PCB Copper 9 2
Connection stack 1 Copper 3 3
Connection stack 2 Copper 3 1
OBC daughter board Copper 9 1

Table 4.6: Thermal couplings for the OBC.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

Cylinder supports PCB 2

PCB Connection stack 1 1
PCB Connection stack 2 1
PCB Rods 0.1
Cylinder supports OBC daughter board 2

28
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

4.1.4 ISIS Magnetorquer Board (iMTQ’s)

The ISIS magnetorquer board is modelled as a flat PCB with thickness as shown in
Figure 4.5. The torque rods are built perpendicular to each other and are attached to the
thermal brackets. Here, the thermal brackets supporting the rods are modelled as thick
plates with square cross section but the calculations for the couplings include the long
slender brackets actually present in the original layout. The other couplings observed is
between the PCB with the connection board and the aircore.

The material used is as represented in Table 4.7 along with the capacitances. The optical
properties for the PCB is FR-4 and the other parts have no special coating included in
this model. The thermal couplings calculated is as shown in Table 4.8.

Figure 4.5: Thermal Model of ISIS Magnetorquer board

Table 4.7: Model details for the Magnetorquers.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

Torque rods Aluminum 6082 6 4

PCB Copper 9 2
Torque rod 1 brackets Aluminum 6082 2 0.2
Torque rod 2 brackets Aluminum 6082 2 1
Connection stack Copper 3 2
Air Core Aluminum 6082 12 4

29
4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Table 4.8: Thermal couplings for the Magnetorquers.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

Torque rod 1 Torque rod 1 bracket 1

Torque rod 2 Torque rod 2 bracket 1
PCB Connection stack 1
PCB Air core 1 and 3 9
PCB Air core 2 and 4 8
PCB Rods 0.1
PCB Torque rod 1 bracket 0.3
PCB Torque rod 2 bracket 1

4.1.5 TRXVU Transceiver

The TRXVU transceiver is also similarly modelled as others where in it consists of a flat
plate as a PCB, rectangular surface with thickness as connection stack and the other small
boxes that are present on the PCB shown in Figure 4.6. Table 4.9 shows the materials
used are copper for all components in this system.

Figure 4.6: Thermal Model of ISIS TRXVU- transceiver board

The thermal couplings observed are between PCB and connection stack, boxes 1,2,3 & 4,
and lastly the structure rods as presented in the Table 4.10.

30
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Table 4.9: Model details for the TRXVU transceiver.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

Boxes 1 and 2 Copper 4 4

Boxes 3 and 4 Copper 2 6
PCB Copper 9 2
Connection stack Copper 3 3

Table 4.10: Thermal couplings for the TRXVU transceiver.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

PCB Connection stack 1

PCB Boxes 1 and 2 4
PCB Boxes 3 and 4 6
PCB Rods 0.1

4.1.6 Antenna system

The antenna system is a simple box like structure representing the antenna board which
consists of the deployable antenna pointers shown in Figure 4.7. The antenna pointers
are coupled with the board itself and the board in turn is modelled to be coupled with
the ribs present just above the system. However, this connection between the ribs and the
antenna system is not modelled geometrically but included in the conductive couplings.

Table 4.11 shows the capacitances per node for the parts mentioned. All the parts mod-
elled are mostly made of copper and they are not specially coated other than the material
itself. Table 4.12 shows the values for the conductive couplings obtained.

31
4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Figure 4.7: Thermal Model of ISIS antenna system

Table 4.11: Model details for the antenna system.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

Antenna pointer part 1 Copper 4 0.4

Antenna pointer part 2 Copper 2 0.1
Antenna pointer part 2 Copper 2 0.4
PCB Copper 9 12

Table 4.12: Thermal couplings for the antenna system.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

PCB Antenna pointers part 1 0.4

Antenna pointers part 1 Antenna pointers part 2 3
PCB Ribs 0.3

4.1.7 Solar Panels

The solar panels are classified as three different parts such as the deployable solar panels,
2U body mounted panels and 1U body mounted panels. All the panels are modelled
as long flat plate with the thickness of 2mm as shown in Figure 4.8. These panels are

32
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

supported by the side-frames and structure ribs. The material used for the whole model is
Aluminum 6082. The optical properties considered are Aluminum 6082 layer along with
the solar cells on the positive outside and black anodized layer on the negative inside.
The materials used and the capacitances are shown in Table 4.13.

The thermal couplings between the panels and the structure ribs along with the side-
frames are tabulated in Table 4.14.

Figure 4.8: Thermal Model of ISIS solar panels

Table 4.13: Model details for the Solar panels.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

Deployable solar panels Aluminum 6082 32 8

2U Body mounted panels Aluminum 6082 64 5
1U Body mounted panels Aluminum 6082 24 5

Table 4.14: Thermal couplings for the Solar panels.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

Deployable solar panels Structure ribs 0.3

2U and 1U solar panels Sideframes 1

33
4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

4.1.8 CubeProp

The NanoSpace CubeProp is a propulsion module consisting of thrusters and hence it

is positioned at the top of the CubeSat for easier maneuverability. The thermal model
consists of a large cylindrical propellant tank in the middle along with the interface and
the main electronic boards supported by small cylinder supports. This tank is positioned
properly on a mounting board with the help of screw interfaces on four sides. This interface
is not modelled geometrically but considered while obtaining the conductive couplings.
Figure 4.9 shows the thermal model of the CubeProp.

Figure 4.9: Thermal Model of NanoSpace-CubeProp

Table 4.15: Model details for the CubeProp.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

Propulsion tank Aluminum 6082 5 15

PCB Copper 9 2
Mounting board Aluminum 6082 8 8
Interface PCBs Copper 18 1
Cylinder supports Aluminum 6082 8 1
Mounting supports Aluminum 6082 4 6

The optical properties used as a coating for all the parts plays an important role in
thermal activity of the system. These properties can be varied by using different tapes

34
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

on the surfaces. The electronic boards such as the PCBs are FR-4, the mounting board
and all kinds of supports along with the tank are of Aluminum 6082. But this coating
is later changed for some of the parts during the thermal control analysis to maintain
the temperature limits. Table 4.15 shows the values for capacitance for each of the parts
modelled in thermica. The thermal couplings observed in this model are mainly between
the tank and the mounting board, supports with the mounting board and PCB with the
structure rods. Table 4.16 shows the conductance values for all the couplings in detail.

Table 4.16: Thermal couplings for the CubeProp.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

PCB Cylinder supports 1

Mounting board Cylinder support 1
Mounting board Interface PCBs 2
Mounting board Propulsion tank 0.1
Mounting board Mounting support 1
Interface PCBs Mounting supports 4
Mounting supports Structure ribs 1
PCB Rods 0.1

4.1.9 SEUD

The SEUD thermal model consists of the PCB and the connection stack as the main
parts. The PCB is modelled as a flat plate of thickness 2mm and it is coupled to two
separate flat boxes on the top and bottom. The connection stack is coupled with the PCB
as shown in Figure 4.10. The optical properties are the same as the material used and no
special coating is considered.

Table 4.17 shows the material considered for each part which is observed to be mostly
copper. The thermal couplings between the parts are considered and obtained as shown
in Table 4.18.

35
4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Figure 4.10: Thermal Model of SEUD

Table 4.17: Model details for the SEUD.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

SEU Top part Copper 9 3

PCB Copper 9 2
SEU Bottom part Copper 9 4
Connection stack Copper 3 2

Table 4.18: Thermal couplings for the SEUD.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

PCB SEU Top part 5

PCB SEU Bottom part 4
PCB Connection stack 1
PCB Structure rods 0.04

36
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

4.1.10 MOREBAC

The MOREBAC is a biological experiment placed below the SEUD payload in the upper
stack. The thermal model of this payload is just simple two boxes of different thickness.
The detailed model of the payload is not yet available as the experiment is still in its
developmental stage. As a result of this, detailed information regarding the materials or
optical properties used are still not available. As for the analysis, the assumption made
for one of the boxes is considered to be copper where as the other one is Aluminum 6082.
This assumption was merely made based on the fact that MOREBAC intends to use
PCBs and a tank to store the bacterias. This design is only to get a fair idea about the
temperature limits for this experiment. The thermal model of the experiment is shown
in Figure 4.11.
The capacitances for each of these materials are calculated based on the information
assumed and can be seen from Table 4.19. The thermal couplings exist between the two
boxes and one of the boxes is coupled with the structure rods for support. The values
presented in Table 4.20 shows the conductances.

Figure 4.11: Thermal Model of MOREBAC

Table 4.19: Model details for the MOREBAC.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

MOREBAC Part 1 Copper 9 24

MOREBAC Part 2 Aluminum 6082 9 15

37
4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Table 4.20: Thermal couplings for the MOREBAC.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

MOREBAC Part 1 MOREBAC Part 2 2

MOREBAC Part 1 Structure rods 0.1

4.1.11 RATEX-J

The RATEX-J is a particle detector experiment which is placed in the lower stack of
the CubeSat and is exposed to space. This thermal model is fairly detailed and consists
of many parts. Hence this model has the most number of couplings. It consists of two
cylindrical shaped detectors placed in the -X direction. These detectors are coupled with
the PCBs inside and together are coupled with the bottom panel. The panels cover the
entire experiment on all sides as shown in Figure 4.13. The lower panel is coupled with the
structure rods. There are other electronic boards which are modelled as boxes and also
coupled with the lower panel inside. Figure 4.12 shows the inside view of the experiment
module. All the parts of the RATEX-J has specific materials from which they are made
of but since most of the parts are PCBs, they are modelled as copper. The Table 4.21
shows the details of the materials and capacitances for each of the modelled parts.

Figure 4.12: Thermal Model of RATEX-J (Inside View)

38
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Figure 4.13: Thermal Model of RATEX-J

Table 4.21: Model details for the RATEX-J.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

Stack dummy cylinder 1,2 Aluminum 6082 4 10

MCP CEM Board Copper 9 0.4
Sub Board Copper 9 0.3
Stack dummy 1,2 Flanges Aluminum 6082 2 2
SSD Box Aluminum 6082 4 5
SSD electronic board Copper 8 0.2
HV Box Aluminum 6082 9 21
HV electronic board Copper 12 0.3
DPU Box Aluminum 6082 4 20
DPU electronic board Copper 8 0.3
Side panel 1,2 Aluminum 6082 9 2
Bottom Panel Aluminum 6082 9 5
Top panel Aluminum 6082 9 5
Back panel Aluminum 6082 9 2

The various couplings and conductance values are completely listed in Table 4.22.

39
4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Table 4.22: Thermal couplings for the RATEX-J.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

MCP CEM Board Top panel 0.1

MCP CEM Board Stack dummy cylinder 1 2
Sub Board Top panel 0.1
Sub Board Stack dummy cylinder 1 0.02
SSD Box SSD electronic board 0.3
SSD Box Top panel 7
HV Box HV electronic board 1
HV Box DPU Box 4
HV Box SSD Box 2
DPU Box DPU electronic board 1
DPU Box Top panel 14
Side panel 1,2 Bottom panel 2
Side panel 1,2 Top panel 2
Side panel 1,2 Back panel 0.3
Bottom panel Back panel 1
Top panel Back panel 1

4.1.12 SIC

The SIC experiment is modelled as a simple electronic board with thickness 2mm as shown
in Figure 4.14. The material of the board is copper and no special coating is considered
which can be seen in Table 4.23 along with capacitances per node. The thermal coupling
shown in Table 4.24 is only between the board and the structure rods as of now because
the final design of the experiment is yet to be completed.

40
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Figure 4.14: Thermal Model of SIC

Table 4.23: Model details for the SIC.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

SIC PCB Copper 9 2

Table 4.24: Thermal couplings for the SIC.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

SIC PCB Structure rods 0.1

4.1.13 CUBES

The CUBES payload is also a particle detector experiment and is placed just below the
RATEX-J in the lower stack of the CubeSat. It is modelled having three cubes which
are coupled with the electronic board. This electronic board is in turn coupled with the
structure rods. The thermal model shown in Figure 4.15. The material used is Aluminum
6082 for the cubes and copper for the PCB. The Table 4.25 shows the capacitances for
each of the parts.

41
4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Figure 4.15: Thermal Model of CUBES

Table 4.25: Model details for the CUBES.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

Cube 1,2,3 Aluminum 6082 3 3

CUBES PCB Copper 9 1

The thermal couplings as described are obtained as shown in Table 4.26.

Table 4.26: Thermal couplings for the CUBES.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

CUBES PCB Cube 1,2,3 2

CUBES PCB Structure rods 0.01
CUBES PCB Mounting plate 7

4.1.14 LEGS

The Piezo-LEGS experiment is modelled as two separate parts as shown in Figure 4.16.
The first part is the electronic driver board which controls the Piezo motor. The second

42
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

part is the Piezo motor modelled as several boxes. Both the parts are fixed on the
mounting board.The material and the capacitances are shown in Table 4.27.

Figure 4.16: Thermal Model of Piezo-LEGS

Table 4.27: Model details for the Piezo-LEGS.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

Piezo motor part 1 Aluminum 6082 1 7

Piezo motor part 2 Aluminum 6082 1 11
Piezo motor part 3 Aluminum 6082 1 7
Piezo motor part 4 Aluminum 6082 1 1
Piezo motor part 5a Aluminum 6082 1 0.01
Piezo motor part 5b Aluminum 6082 1 0.02
LEGS Driver Board Copper 9 0.4

The main coupling is between the driver board and the mounting board, the boxes used
for the Piezo motor and the mounting board. The couplings along with their conductances
are shown in Table 4.28.

43
4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Table 4.28: Thermal couplings for the CUBES.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

Piezo motor part 4 Piezo motor part 1 1

Piezo motor part 4 Piezo motor part 3 1
Piezo motor part 2 Piezo motor part 3 6
Piezo motor part 3 Piezo motor part 5a 3
Piezo motor part 5a Piezo motor part 5b 0.02
LEGS Driver Board Mounting Board 5
Piezo motor part 1 Mounting Board 3
Piezo motor part 4 Mounting Board 1
Piezo motor part 3 Mounting Board 9
Driver Board Structure rods 0.02

4.1.15 Camera

The Camera used is Raspberry Pi and is modelled as two parts as shown in Figure 4.17.
The first part contains the Raspberry pi camera with the lens holder and the second part
is just the Raspberry Pi board. This payload is placed at the lower stack facing the Earth
i.e, -Z direction. No special optical properties are used except for their materials. The
couplings observed are between the camera lens holder and the PCB, the Raspberry Pi
board and the cover plate placed below the two parts for supports. Table 4.29 shows the
materials considered for each of the parts and the obatined capacitances for each of them.

Figure 4.17: Thermal Model of Camera

44
 4. Thermal Modelling of MIST CubeSat

Table 4.29: Model details for the Camera.

Name of the Material Number of Capacitance per

parts used nodes node (J/K)

Camera PCB Copper 4 0.4

Connection stack Copper 2 0.1
Camera lens part 1 Aluminum 6082 1 1
Camera lens part 2 Aluminum 6082 1 0.3
Raspberry Pi PCB Copper 9 1

The thermal couplings mentioned earlier are represented in Table 4.30.

Table 4.30: Thermal couplings for the Camera.

Part 1 Part 2 Conductance

(W/K)

Camera PCB Connection stack 1

Camera PCB Camera lens part1 1
Camera lens part 1 Camera lens part 2 3
Cover plate Camera PCB 2
Cover plate Raspberry Pi PCB 9

45
 5
Thermal Analysis of MIST CubeSat

Once the thermal model is completely built, the next step for a thermal engineer is to
simulate the model by applying right boundary conditions. The trajectory of the MIST
CubeSat is at an altitude of 640 Km and its velocity direction is -X along the orbit. Figure
5.1 shows the MIST CubeSat (not to scale) having a nadir pointing along the described
orbit. This chapter deals with the analysis of the MIST thermal model by implementing
the heat dissipations on the components and simulating the model for different thermal
cases. The hot and cold cases are main cases simulated to check the temperature behaviour
of the satellite.

Figure 5.1: Trajectory of the MIST

5.1 Thermal Requirements for MIST

The temperature requirements for each of the units in MIST are different and through this
thermal analysis, the requirements have to be met. Hence before starting with the sim-
ulations, this section introduces the various requirements putforth by the experimenters
and the companies for all the payloads and subsystems. Table 5.1 shows the list of com-
ponents and their node numbers along with temperature requirements that are need to
be met.

46
 5. Thermal Analysis of MIST CubeSat

Table 5.1: Temperature requirements for MIST Components.

Name of the Node Operating Non-operating

Components numbers Temperatures °C Temperatures °C

Solar panels [100 - 347] [-170,+130] [-170,+130]

CubeProp [1000 - 1603] [+10,+50] [-10,+60]
SEUD [2000 - 2308] [0,+85] [-65,+150]
MOREBAC [3000 - 3108] [+20,+30] [+4,+30]
RATEX-J [4000 - 5608] [-20,+20] [-40,+50]
SIC [6100 - 6108] [-40,+105] [-40,+105]
[6200 - 6208]
LEGS [+10,+40] [-30,+70]
[6700 - 6910]
CUBES [6300 - 6608] [+20,+30] [-20,+80]
Camera [7000 - 7408] [0,+70] [0,+70]
NanoPower P31-us [9000 - 9600] [-40,+85] [-40,+85]
Battery [10000-10502] [-5,+45] [-5,+45]
Magnetorquers [11000 - 11702] [-40,+70] [-40,+70]
TRXVU transceiver [12000 - 12500] [-40,+60] [-40,+60]
OBC [13000 - 13408] [-40,+60] [-40,+60]
Antenna Board [14000 - 14131] [-30,+70] [-30,+70]

During the analysis, there are always modelling errors and inaccuracies present which has
to be accounted for at the end. Hence to be on the safer end, the final temperatures
calculated are inclusive of the uncertainties as well. The margin placed for the raw
temperatures obtained can vary from 5°C to 10°C depending on the necessity [29]. Figure
5.2 shows the temperature definitions considered before moving on to the thermal control
analysis.

47
5. Thermal Analysis of MIST CubeSat

Figure 5.2: Temperature definitions for Thermal Control System (TCS)

The margin is set at 10°C on both the maximum and minimum temperatures for all the
units in MIST CubeSat. On designing a Thermal Control System (TCS) based on the
temperature including uncertainties, it can be made sure that all the units in the CubeSat
are under safe temperature limits.

5.2 Internal Heat Dissipation

The thermal analysis of any satellite requires the data from the power budget for each of
the components used. This data basically depicts the complete usage of each component
present in MIST CubeSat. This is because each of the components have different power
requirements and they are used at specific times in an orbit. Hence, it is important to
know these details such that the heat dissipation can be applied at those specific times.
Also, it is important to know where on the unit the dissipation take place in order to
apply the dissipation accordingly. The MIST project, however, due to its developmental
phase has an initial draft of how the dissipation profiles should look like. Hence, in this
thesis work, only one of the scenario is built and assumed for the entire analysis. There
are three different cases that are run, one is the worst operational hot case, the other
one is the worst non operational cold case and finally the operational cold case which are
discussed in the following section.

48
 5. Thermal Analysis of MIST CubeSat

Figure 5.3: Subsystem-Heat Dissipation Profile

The Figure 5.3 shows the dissipation profile for the subsystems on board the satellite.
These subsystems are always switched ON and hence are dissipating as long as the satellite
is active. This is however different for the tumbling cases which are not dealt with here.

5.2.1 Operational Case

In this specific case, all the payloads in the MIST are operational and hence are dissipating.
This dissipation profile consists of the heat loads acting on the satellite for the entire one
day.

Figure 5.4: Operational Case-Heat Dissipation Profile

49
5. Thermal Analysis of MIST CubeSat

The Figure 5.4 shows the various dissipations for each of the payloads. The dissipation
time for each of these payloads depend on the experiment requirements. The payloads
such as SEUD, SIC and MOREBAC are seen to be continuously switched ON during the
entire day where as the other payloads are kept ON for few of the orbits. This case is
used both for hot case and cold case scenarios.

5.2.2 Non-Operational Case

In this case, the components which need to be active are still active like those of the
batteries, AOCS, OBC, etc. as shown in the Figure 5.3. The payloads are however
switched OFF and hence they are not dissipating any heat. The subsystems such as
NanoPower P31-us, iMTQ’s and the OBC are continuously switched ON throughout the
orbital time whereas the tranceiver is switched ON only for the first few orbits which is
based on the assumption that MIST CubeSat will cross over the ground station during
that period of time.

5.3 Thermal model analysis

Apart from the operational or non operational cases, there are specific thermal cases such
as hot and cold cases that are observed for temperatures. Thermal engineers adopt both
these cases to define upper and lower bound temperatures observed for the satellite. These
two cases are considered to be the worst thermal case scenarios and hence they are given
importance. All the analysis performed here are for transient state conditions.

5.3.1 Hot Case

The hot case analysis is implemented by using the operational dissipation profile. This
case corresponds to high dissipation of all the components in the CubeSat along with con-
siderable amount of exposure to Solar, Albedo and Earth IR sources. Also the parameters
used in case of MIST are LTAN of 22:30 and winter solstice of 2018 [2]. Here the LTAN
value seems to be 15 minutes away from the original value of 22:45 to account for the
extremes. During the winter solstice, the Earth is situated closest to the Sun. This is also
found to be End of Life (EOL) case for the MIST CubeSat. The simulation for the ther-
mal model is done for 15 orbits which means almost an entire day. Since this is the end
of life analysis, the optical properties of all the materials will have to be changed in terms
of absorptivity. This is due to accumulation of all the contamination on the coating over
the large span of time resulting in forming a layer that absorbs more amount of radiation.
This refers to thermal degradation of materials. The difference observed in absorptivity
is taken from the Spacecraft Thermal Control Handbook by David G Gilmore.

50
 5. Thermal Analysis of MIST CubeSat

5.3.2 Cold Case

The cold case analysis is implemented by using the non operational case where in all
the payloads are switched OFF during this period. This is done to ensure that the
temperatures are maintained even in non operational phase of the experiments. The
parameters used are LTAN value of 23:00 and summer solstice of 2018 [2]. Similar to the
hot case, the other extreme value of LTAN is considered here compared to the original.
During the summer solstice, Earth is farthest from the Sun. This case is also found to be
Beginning of Life (BOL) for the MIST CubeSat. All the optical properties of materials
used are the BOL values or the initial values. This is because there are no significant
changes in the optical properties due to degradation at the initial stages of the mission.
Also the simulation of cold case when all the payloads are switched ON have also been
performed using the same cold case environmental parameters. Apart from the two cases
discussed here, there are also tumbling cases which come under this category as well.
These tumbling cases does not come under the framework of the current thesis work but
will be analysed later on as the project develops.

51
 6
Thermal Control Design

Once the thermal analysis is completed, the temperatures obtained for the components
have seemed to be exceeding the limits that they are supposed to be in. The main goal of
thermal control system is to bring those temperatures down to accepted thermal limits.
There are two types of thermal control such as the passive control and the active control
system. The passive control is usually lighter in weight and cheaper compared to active
control systems. MIST however needs both active and passive control systems for thermal
control purposes. This chapter deals with the design of thermal control system for MIST
and also discusses the implications it has on the overall design of the CubeSat.

6.1 Passive Control System

This type of thermal control does not involve any mechanical moving parts or moving flu-
ids and also no power consumption. In fact passive means are the most suitable control
system for a CubeSat because of its limited power budget constraints, low mass require-
ments and less complexity to design. Other than this fact it has also other advantages in
terms of reliability and cost.

6.1.1 First Surface Mirrors

A First Surface Mirror (FSM) consists of a layer of metallic coating on a substrate as

shown in Figure 6.1. These metallic coating have low emittance & absorptivity and
typical coating used are aluminum or gold depending on the requirements. The substrate
however is made out of polymide film or FEP (fluorinated ethylene propylene) film [25].

Figure 6.1: Concept of First Surface Mirror (FSM) [25]

52
 6. Thermal Control Design

6.1.2 Second Surface Mirrors

When the Sun is shining on a surface, it will be heated and reach an equilibrium temper-
ature based on the amount of sunlight absorbed and the amount of heat energy emitted.
To reach lower equilibrium temperatures, another device is necessary with a lower absorp-
tance to emittance ratio. A Second Surface Mirror (SSM) uses the bulk of the substrate
to provide relatively high emittance and a metallic coating to provide low absorptance
value [25]. For MIST, the lowest ratios of absorptance to emittance are obtained by using
a Teflon film and a highly reflective silver coating to do the job. Figure 6.2 shows the
concept discussed here.

Figure 6.2: Concept of Second Surface Mirror (SSM) [25]

6.2 Active control System

In this type of thermal control system, mechanical moving parts and electrical power is
required. The active means are preferred only when the temperature conditions exceed
the limits on a larger scale. For instance, an heater might be required for heating the
components up to required limits. The drawback of using this is that, it involves complex
designs and requires extra electrical power and cost.

6.2.1 Heaters

The MIST CubeSat on the other hand requires heaters to bring the temperature conditions
back to required conditions. Heaters are composed of electrical resistance elements that
aid in the heating process. The later sections deals with the heaters applied to specific
components in MIST.

Figure 6.3: Typical heaters used for the satellites [26]

53
6. Thermal Control Design

The commonly used heaters are the patch heaters shown in the Figure 6.3. As the heaters
requirement is stated, this analysis consists of only the sizing of power requirements for
the heaters and no specific heater chosen has been for the CubeSat yet.

6.3 Analysis results

This section is divided into three parts, cold non-operational case, hot operational case
and lastly cold operational case results. The first two cases representing the worst case
scenarios are discussed in detail along with the results whereas only the results are shown
for the third case . These results are pertaining to only the components which are critical
and most sensitive among the systems in the CubeSat. All the temperatures shown in
the different cases are inclusive of the uncertainty considered.

6.3.1 Hot Operational Case :

The hot operational case can be considered as one of the worst case scenario where in all
the subsystems and payloads are functional but the temperatures have to be limited to
operating conditions. Figure 6.4 shows the observed temperatures compared with specified
temperatures for each of the units with regard to hot case scenario. All the temperatures
along with heater powers for the payloads and subsystems are shown in Table 6.1.

Figure 6.4: Temperature limit plot for Hot Operational Case

54
 6. Thermal Control Design

Table 6.1: Thermal temperatures for Hot Operational Case.

Required Calculated
Payloads/ Average Heater
Temp. °C Temp. °C
Subsystems Power/Day (W)
Min. Max. Min. Max.
CubeProp +10 +50 -13 +44 3.7
SEUD 0 +85 +3 +42 -
MOREBAC +20 +30 +5 +34 -
RATEX-J -20 +20 -6 +24 -
SIC -40 +105 -9 +24 -
CUBES +20 +30 -5 +26 -
LEGS +10 +40 -5 +26 -
Camera 0 +70 0 +29 0.4
Batteries -5 +45 0 +37 -

• CubeProp

The CubeProp is considered to be critical in this case because the tank being exposed
to space and in the +Z direction, there is always a possibility to absorb more amount
of solar radiation and hence, becomes hot. The material of the tank being aluminum
6082 which has a higher conductivity creates a problem. Hence, for this case, to
lower the temperatures within the limit, the payload is covered by a cover plate
placed on top to act as a barrier. Once this was designed, a layer of Teflon was
coated on this cover plate along with the disc of the tank. The Teflon film along
with the silver coating which had a thickness of 5 mil SSM was applied on the outer
surface of the tank to limit the absorption of radiation. The propulsion tank is also
coated with a same material but with a thickness of 10 mil SSM specifically to the
top disc. There has been no taping used on the cylinder of the tank. This sort of
passive thermal control system brought down the maximum temperature to within
its limits. But the module as a whole is experiencing lower temperatures during
the eclipse and has to be controlled. The propulsion tank, however, being the main
concern with this experiment is under the temperature limits specified. The heater
implemented earlier is still not optimized in such a way to control the temperatures
on the minimum scale for the rest of the parts within. The average power required
for the heater per day is around 3.7 Watts as of now.

• SEUD

SEUD is also simulated and observed that there is no exceed in limits on the hotter
scale. The maximum temperature reached as seen in the table below is well within
the limits but on the other hand the lower temperature scale during the eclipse

55
6. Thermal Control Design

period is observed. But the heater implemented earlier is not required for this case.
This is due to the fact that the heat conducted from the CubeProp is influencing
the SEUD and hence maintaining it.

• MOREBAC

Since this is one of the critical unit among others, the temperature observed are
beyond the limits mentioned by the experimenters. At the initial analysis it was
observed that 1.2 Watts was seeming to high and rendering the temperatures high
on the maximum scale. Since the experiment is still in its development phase, it was
possible to change the power consumption. Once the dissipating power was reduced
to 0.8 W, the conditions have seemed to be stabilized in terms of hotter scale. The
heater used for this scenario earlier in the non operational case is switched OFF
because it was observed to be over heating the equipment. But since the heater is
switched OFF, the temperatures are also going well below on the minimum scale.
Hence this experiment is very difficult to control on both the scales.

• RATEX-J

This payload is one of the passively controlled experiments. The temperatures ob-
served before the implementation of the control system was that, it was experiencing
hotter temperatures and had to be brought down. Hence, a Teflon film along with
silver coating of thickness 10 mil SSM is applied on top panels of the experiment.
It is later observed that even with the lower absorptance to emittance ratio, it is a
bit hotter with respect to maximum temperatures.

• SIC

SIC is observed to be well within the temperature limits for the hot case as well.
And hence no apparent changes or modifications have been performed.

• CUBES

CUBES is another experiment which has a narrower limits when it comes to opera-
tional case and hence is observed to be colder in this case. The heater implemented
nearby is for the Camera but it seems to be critical. On increasing the heater power
for the camera, the temperature for the RATEX-J is being affected due to conduc-
tion. Due to this reason there is no heater implemented near the RATEX-J. This
is also the reason why the CUBES experiment is colder on the minimum scale.

• Piezo LEGS

This experiment is having the same problems as that of the CUBES. The hotter
scale of the temperatures are just within the limits but colder scale is not able to
reach the required specifications.

56
 6. Thermal Control Design

• Camera

The Camera payload is observed to be satisfying the thermal conditions . The heater
implemented is controlling the minimum scale temperatures and its well within the
boundary limits when it comes to hotter scale. The average power required for the
heater per day is around 0.4 Watts.

• Batteries

The batteries being the most sensitive as mentioned earlier is also well within the
thermal conditions. The heater is switched off and is not required for this case.

6.3.2 Cold-Non Operational case:

The Cold case non-operational case can also be considered the worst case scenario as of
now wherein none of the payloads are functional but still has to be maintained within
the non operational temperature limits. Note that the tumbling cases maybe one of the
worst case scenarios but is not dealt with during this work. Figure 6.5 shows the observed
temperatures compared with specified temperatures for each of the units with regard to
cold non operational case scenario. All the temperatures along with heater powers for the
payloads and subsystems are shown in Table 6.2.

Figure 6.5: Temperature limit plot for Cold Non-Operational Case

57
6. Thermal Control Design

Table 6.2: Thermal temperatures for Cold Non Operational Case.

Required Calculated
Payloads/ Average Heater
Temp. °C Temp. °C
Subsystems Power/Day (W)
Min. Max. Min. Max.
CubeProp -10 +60 -14 +30 3.0
SEUD -65 +150 +4 +50 2.5
MOREBAC +4 +30 +6 +27 1.7
RATEX-J -40 +50 -11 +10 -
SIC -40 +105 -13 +12 -
CUBES -20 +80 -10 +12 -
LEGS -30 +70 -10 +12 -
Camera 0 +70 0 +24 2.4
Batteries -5 +45 -3 +31 -

• CubeProp

The Cubeprop is placed at the top of the CubeSat and is a bit exposed to space.
The temperature conditions this payload is experiencing is very low temperatures
compared to others. The integrated heater present in the experiment has a high
resistance of 120 ohms and is placed at the bottom of the propulsion tank. The
limitation of this heater is that with the high resistance, the heater power obtained
is not enough or sufficient to do the job. Hence an additional heater was sized
through this analysis to meet the requirements. The heater power sized is upto 6.5
Watts which seems to be a bit high but required. Once this heater is implemented
the temperatures have come almost within the limits. From the observation it is
seen that the tank of the propulsion module is completely well within the limits but
the other parts of the component is bit colder. The average power required for the
heater per day is around 3.0 Watts.

• SEUD

The SEUD payload is kept below the CubeProp and is only a PCB. This payload
is also experiencing colder temperatures. This experiment does not contain any
integrated heater but an additional heater is being taken in to account. The heater
implemented for this experiment is sized to a power of about 5.5 Watts. Once
this heater is activated on to this system, the temperatures are well within the
requirements. The average power required for the heater per day is around 2.5
Watts.

58
 6. Thermal Control Design

• MOREBAC

MOREBAC is the third payload placed in the upper stack of the CubeSat. Since the
design of this experiment is in process, the model contains only two boxes. But this
experiment is one of the most sensitive compared to others in terms of temperatures
and thus considered more important. This experiment is also equipped with a heater
of power sized up to 3.9 Watts. During the non operational case, the temperatures
can go lower than other cases and hence it is important for this experiment to
maintain within limit so that the bacterias do not freeze. The results for this case
is also reasonably within limits after implementing the heaters. The average power
required for the heater per day is around 1.7 Watts.

• RATEX-J

RATEX-J payload is placed at the lower stack of the CubeSat and is a particle
detector experiment which is exposed to space. The thermal model for this exper-
iment is fairly detailed and this module seems to be maintained thermally without
any application of heaters. The temperatures for this specific payload is well within
the limits. There are no apparent changes made for this payload in the cold case.

• SIC

SIC is the silicon carbide experiment which is basically just the PCB. This payload
however has wider temperature ranges between which it has to be maintained. There
are no apparent changes made to this payload either in this case.

• CUBES

CUBES is another particle detector experiment placed just below the RATEX-J
module in the lower stack. The thermal model is just a PCB and three cube shaped
structures. The temperature limits for this case also seems to be fine and within the
limits mentioned. Due to this reason there is no heater implemented to this module
as well.

• LEGS

Piezo- LEGS is located close to the CUBES experiment in the lower stack itself.
Both the CUBES and LEGS experiment are also exposed to space in the -X direction
of the CubeSat. This payload is also well within the limits in the non operational
case. There are no heaters implemented.

• Camera

The Camera is mounted on the cover plate pointing towards -Z direction at the lower
stack. This payload is experiencing very low temperatures and hence an heater is
designed. The heater implemented is sized up to a power of about 4.9 Watts and
is positioned on the cover plate which is in contact with the camera and Raspberry
Pi board. This heat that is supplied maintains the payload within the temperature

59
6. Thermal Control Design

limits and also helps in maintaining the other payloads above it such as the CUBES,
LEGS and SIC. The average power required for the heater per day is around 2.4
Watts. The heat conducted from the camera is also transferred to the other payloads
such as CUBES and LEGS indirectly.

• Battery

The battery is another sensitive subsystem that is very crucial for the mission. Hence
maintaining this temperature is of utmost important for the survival of CubeSat.
There is already an integrated heater for the batteries. This heater has the power
ranges of 3.5 to 5.9 Watts as mentioned in the ICD’s and the minimum value of
3.5 Watts was considered. Since this is the non operational case wherein only the
subsystems are switched on, there is always a possibility for the temperature to go
down. The average power required for the heater per day is around 0.7 Watts.

6.3.3 Cold Operational Case:

The cold operational case has all the payloads and subsystems switched ON and are
dissipating heat. The other parameters used are similar to the cold non operational case.
The heaters power used for this case is same as that of the cold non operational case
but the average power required per day may change according to the usage. Figure 6.6
shows the observed temperatures compared with specified temperatures for each of the
units with regard to cold operational case scenario. From the Table 6.3 and 6.6 it can
be observed that payloads CubeProp, MOREBAC, CUBES and LEGS are still not yet
satisfied with regards to temperature limits whereas the rest of the payloads are within
the requirements. All the heaters are switched ON in this case and the average power
required are also mentioned in the Table 6.3. No changes in the thermal control system
in terms of design are made for this case.

Figure 6.6: Temperature limit plot for Cold Operational Case

60
 6. Thermal Control Design

Table 6.3: Thermal temperatures for Cold Operational Case.

Required Calculated
Payloads/ Average Heater
Temp. °C Temp. °C
Subsystems Power/Day (W)
Min. Max. Min. Max.
CubeProp +10 +50 -8 +50 4.7
SEUD 0 +85 +20 +67 2.4
MOREBAC +20 +30 +22 +42 2.3
RATEX-J -20 +20 -9 +20 -
SIC -40 +105 -12 +16 -
CUBES +20 +30 -9 +18 -
LEGS +10 +40 -9 +18 -
Camera 0 +70 0 +23 1.1
Batteries -5 +45 -4 +28 0.2

6.4 New Thermal Model

After updating all the thermal control systems, the new design after considerations is
shown in the Figure 6.7. This model consists of all the design changes made based on the
results obtained from three cases that have been run.

Figure 6.7: New Thermal Model

61
 7
CONCLUSIONS

7.1 Conclusion

This thesis work involved the understanding of basic principles behind the spacecraft
thermal analysis and control. A detailed model of MIST CubeSat was modelled using
the Thermica software to analyse the temperature variations for the entire satellite. The
main intention through this work was to come up with a suitable control system that
could maintain the thermal balance between the CubeSat and the space environment.

Due to the presence of many payloads and subsystems on board, it was necessary to ensure
the overall reliability through this analysis. The work involved studying the temperature
behaviour in three thermal cases such as cold case non operational, hot case operational
and finally cold case operational. The first two cases were termed as the worst case sce-
narios and the thermal control system was built based on those analysis results. The
TCS for the MIST involves both passive and active means of control. The upper bound
temperatures experienced by the components were controlled completely using passive
means such as Teflon Silvered coating on the surfaces. The lower bound temperatures
required heaters to be controlled which was challenging in this case due to many com-
ponents present in MIST. There were other design changes needed to be made such as
introducing a cover plate for experiments like CubeProp and RATEX-J. As a result of
these changes, the temperatures shown in the previous chapter are the final conditions
observed.

Even after the application of these changes, it is observed that some of the payloads are
yet to be brought under the requirements. Since the project is still in its developmental
stages, further work could be done to control the temperatures and probably come up
with an alternative design of TCS.

7.2 Future Work

Although the analysis was done on a detailed level, there are still many aspects that has
to be considered as the time progresses. The materials used for each of the parts present

62
 7. CONCLUSIONS

is assumed as of now due to incomplete information and hence has to be updated along
with the optical properties.

The LTAN values need to be checked again for the mission because there seemed to be
confusions with regard the values. One of the other main things to be looked into is the
dissipation profile for each of the thermal cases. The analysis so far has only the assumed
scenario but, after observing the results, it needs to be changed as the satellite is going
too cold for the mission. The power dissipations and the location of where the dissipation
is happening should be updated. As of now, the dissipations are applied to all the PCBs
in the CubeSat.

Currently, the dissipation profile is just the basic one and with this the temperatures for
all the payloads were colder than it needs to be. The thermal control analysis done for
this scenario requires quite a few heaters and this could lead to power budget constraints.
Hence, a new control design with less heaters could be beneficial. One of the methods
is maybe to use the payloads or units to just dissipate heat by turning them ON when
needed. Hence in this case the units or payloads in concern will be switched ON and
dissipating heat but not operational. Such a mode can be useful in maintaining the
temperature only if it is allowed by the experimenters. Also, the use of MLI could be one
of the options to consider for some of the payloads.

Lastly, the location of the payloads such as the CUBES and Piezo LEGS are very critical.
From this analysis it was observed that placing a heater for the CUBES or the LEGS, the
temperatures for RATEX-J was being influenced. Hence this seems to be an issue that
has to be addressed.

63
 A
Geometrical Model Properties

This section entails all the material and thermo-optical properties pertaining to the de-
tailed geometric model designed for the thermal analysis. All the values represented here
are standard and belong to the materials used for each models.

A.1 Material Properties

Figure A.1 shows the various materials used for MIST CubeSat. The SolarPanels men-
tioned in the legend is same as the material Aluminum 6082 but with different optical
properties. As seen from the Figure A.1 most of the CubeSat is composed of only Alu-
minum 6082 and Copper as of now.

Figure A.1: Materials used for MIST CubeSat

64
 A. Geometrical Model Properties

Table A.1: Material properties used in geometric model. [1]

Material Specific heat Density Conductivity

used Capacity(J/Kg.K) (Kg/m3 ) (W/mK)

Aluminum 6082 896 2810 170

Aluminum 5754 900 2670 130
Copper 589 2223 20.5

Table A.1 shows the typical values used for the Specific heat Capacity, Density and
Conductivity of the materials. These properties are very important to calculate the
Capacitances for all the parts.

A.2 Optical Properties

Figure A.2 shows the various optical properties used for MIST CubeSat. As seen from
the Figure A.2, there are some special coatings such as Teflon-Silvered, FR-4, Black
Anodized layer have been applied to some of the surfaces as passive means to control the
temperature.

Figure A.2: Optical coatings used for MIST CubeSat

65
A. Geometrical Model Properties

Table A.2: Optical properties used in geometric model. (BOL Values) [1]

Material Emissivity Absorptivity

Aluminum 6082 0.05 0.15

Aluminum 5754 0.82 0.65
Black Anodized Layer 0.88 0.76
Copper 0.8 0.9
FR-4 0.89 0.75
SSM 0.78 0.23
Solar Panels 0.86 0.6
Teflon Silvered 10 mil 0.88 0.09
Teflon Silvered 5 mil 0.81 0.08

Table A.2 shows the values of emissivity and absorptivity considered for BOL cases.
The EOL values takes into consideration of the change in absorptivity due to thermal
degradation. All these values are hereby taken from the Thermal Control Handbook by
David G Gilmore.

The emissivity and absorptivity values for solar panels are calculated separately here. It
is very important to consider the effective loss in absorptivity of solar cells due to the
conversion of solar into electrical energy. This is shown as:

αef f = αcell − µcell = 0.9 − 0.3 = 0.6 (A.1)

wherein µcell represents the maximum efficiency of the cell, αcell is the absorptivity of the
solar cells used and αef f is the effective absorptivity. However this is the case for BOL
cases but for the EOL case, the effective absorptivity can be calculated as :

αef f = αcell − 50% ∗ µcell = 0.9 − 0.5 ∗ 0.3 = 0.75 (A.2)

Due to the difference in conversion efficiency of solar cells during different thermal cases, a
power draw of 100 % is considered for cold cases whereas 50 % for the hot cases [29]. The
emissivity, however, remains constant throughout the life time of CubeSat. The effective
emissivity can be calculated as :

ef f = 31% ∗ Al − 69% ∗ cell = 0.31 ∗ 0.88 − 0.69 ∗ 0.85 = 0.86 (A.3)
wherein the Al is the emissivity of the black anodized layer applied on the solar panel of
material aluminum 6082. Also, it is considered that 69 % of the panels are covered with
cells [27].

66
 B
Internal Heat Dissipations

This section gives the details of peak power dissipations observed in each of the units
present in MIST CubeSat. Refer MIST ICD’s for more details. All the values represented
here are the latest and may be further updated as the project develops. Table B.1 shows
the values of power dissipation per payload during operating as well as idle conditions.
Table B.1: Power dissipation values for payloads during operating & idle conditions.

Payloads Operating Power (W) Idle Power (W)

CubeProp 3.2 0.01

SEUD 1.2 0.25
MOREBAC 1.2 -
RATEX-J 2.3 -
SIC 0.4 -
CUBES 1.0 -
LEGS 1.0 -
Camera 1.0 0.36

During the non operating conditions, all the mentioned payloads are switched OFF during
which only the subsystems are switched ON. The power dissipations observed for the
subsystems are shown in Table B.2
Table B.2: Power dissipation values for Subsystems during operating & idle conditions.

Subsystems Operating Power (W) Idle Power (W)

NanoPower P31-US 0.6 -

iMTQ’s 1.2 0.15
Transceiver 4 0.48
OBC 0.38 -

67
 C
Figures

The temperature variation within the MIST CubeSat is very important and it is based on
these temperatures that the control system is developed. Figure C.1 shows the distribution
of temperatures during the hot operational case at time zero. The temperature scale is
also shown along with the CubeSat. Figure C.2 shows the temperature distribution for
the cold non-operational case and Figure C.3 shows the distribution for cold operational
case at time zero respectively. At time zero, the CubeSat seems to be in an eclipse phase
and also crossing the equator in an ascending node.

Figure C.1: Thermal temperatures of MIST CubeSat at time zero for the
Hot Operational case

68
 C. Figures

Figure C.2: Thermal temperatures of MIST CubeSat at time zero for the
Cold Non-Operational case

Figure C.3: Thermal temperatures of MIST CubeSat at time zero for the
Cold Operational case

69
 Bibliography

[1] David G. Gilmore, Spacecraft Thermal Control Handbook, Volume 1: Fundamental

Technologies, The Aerospace Press, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astro-
nautics, Inc. 2002.

[2] MIST, Reference Orbit version 3, Interface Control Documents, 2015.

[3] Gomspace, NanoPower BP4 battery pack, http://www.gomspace.com/documents/

ds/gs-ds-nanopower-bp4-2.3.pdf, 2015.

[4] Gomspace, NanoPower P31-us, http://www.gomspace.com/documents/ds/

gs-ds-nanopower-p31u-13.pdf, 2015.

[5] Innovative Solutions In Space, On Board Computer, https://www.cubesatshop.

com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ISIS_ISIS-OBC_Brochure_v.15.6.pdf, 2015.

[6] Innovative Solutions In Space, Magnetorquer Board, https://www.isispace.nl/

product/isis-magnetorquer-board/, 2015.

[7] Innovative Solutions In Space, TRXVU transceiver Board, https://www.isispace.

nl/product/isis-uhf-downlink-vhf-uplink-full-duplex-transceiver/,
2015.

[8] Innovative Solutions In Space, Deployable Antenna System, https://www.isispace.

nl/brochures/ISIS_AntS_Brochure_v.7.11.pdf, 2015.

[9] MIST, ISIS Solar Panel- Side Mount User Manual, Interface Control Documents,
2012.

[10] MIST, NanoSpace version 3, Interface Control Documents, 2015.

[11] MIST, SEUD version 2, Interface Control Documents, 2015.

[12] MIST, MOREBAC version 3, Interface Control Documents, 2015.

[13] MIST, RATEX-J version 2, Interface Control Documents, 2015.

[14] MIST, SIC version 2, Interface Control Documents, 2015.

70
 Bibliography

[15] MIST, CUBES version 2, Interface Control Documents, 2015.

[16] MIST, Piezo LEGS version 2, Interface Control Documents, 2015.

[17] MIST, Camera version 3, Interface Control Documents, 2015.

[18] MIST, ISIS CubeSat STructural Subsystem, Interface Control Documents version 2.1,
2012.

[19] MIST, Coordinate Systems and Subsystem Orientations, Document version 5, 2016.

[20] R.Karam, Satellite Thermal Control for Systems Engineers, American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. 1998.

[21] Mike Legatt Dave Hauth, Chuck Hisamoto Thermal Analysis, University of Min-
nesota, 110 Union Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, April 2008.

[22] Yunus A. Cengel Heat Transfer: A Practical Approach, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 2003 .

[23] Andreas Berggren, Design of Thermal Control System for the Spacecraft MIST, De-
partment of Space and Plasma Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
2015.

[24] Airbus Defense and Space “Systema-Thermica” http://www.systema.

airbusdefenceandspace.com/products/thermica.html

[25] Sheldahl, “The Red Book” http://www.sheldahl.com/documents/Thermal%

20Control%20Overview.pdf

[26] Active Control System, Heaters, http://www.holroydcomponents.com/blog/

everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-kapton-heaters-but-were-afraid-to/,
2016.

[27] Tom van Boxtel Thermal modelling and design of the DelFFi satellites, Delft Uni-
versity of Technology, 2015.

[28] Urmas Kvell, Marit Puusepp, Franz Kaminski, Jaan-Eerik Past, Kristoffer Palmer,
Tor-Arne Gronland and Mart Noorma, "Nanosatellite orbit control using MEMS
cold gas thrusters", Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences,2014, 63, 2S,
279–285.

[29] Andreas Berggren, Standard Values for thermal design of satellites, Surrey Satellite
Technology Limited (SSTL), Uk.

[30] Kavithasan Patkunam, CAD Team Report-Team 3, MIST, 2016.

[31] Wikipedia, Radiative View factor.

71
TRITA -EE 2016:197

www.kth.se