Heat Transfer Model of a Small Size Satellite on Geostationary Orbit in Cold Condition

Philippe Preumont , Roman Szewczyk , Paweł Wittels , Filip Czubaczyński

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to compute an approached satellite thermal model to be able to estimate the heat transfer and the minimum temperature through harmonic gear for small size geostationary satellite in cold condition. We will use finite element method using known data with Nastran In-CAD FEM software. The presented results show temperature gradients compatible with experimental information. Though the results are not correlated with dedicated tests, they seems to be in line with what can be found in literature. The paper will use these information in dedicated analysis related to impact of temperature gradient in precision mechanism. A second purpose of the study is to show that simplified tools and methods allows to reach results sufficient for preliminary analysis. The space business is changing fast with growing private companies that are challenging conservative space standards. A simplified analysis allowing to reduced cost and increase competitiveness is presented.