Satellite and SmallSat Thermal Control Engineering

• From September 29, 2021 – October 22, 2021 (4 Weeks, 8 Lectures, 16 Hours)
• Every Wednesday and Friday at 1300-1500 Eastern Time (all sessions will be recorded and available for replay; course notes will be available for download)
• All students will receive an AIAA Certificate of Completion at the end of the course
  
  

Overview

This unique 16-hour online course primarily presents satellite thermal control for small satellites as an organized engineering discipline and shows how to design the thermal control system based on best practices developed by the satellite industry. The course does not require knowledge of physics and mathematics. The main thrust is to give participants an understanding of the problems and methods of solution encountered in a smallsat thermal design. It will show an effect of spacecraft size and mission goals on the thermal control system. All the illustrations and numerical examples based on actual situations. The course will explain many of the difficult points that have made thermal control an often-confusing subject. The result is a course on one of the most essential aspects in the design of satellites.

Cubesat developers will greatly benefit from this course. Nanosat/cubesats are getting more and more popular. Being invented as a tool to teach students practicalities of spacecraft designing and manufacturing, the cubesats became very popular for the last three years. For example, for the last 10-15 yrs, typically, only 10-15 cubesats per year were placed on orbit. Now cubesats are used for other applications like technology testbed by NASA, Earth imaging, space explorations, etc. For the last 2-3 years, number of cubesats launched per year was doubled yearly. Currently, SpaceX, Amazon and other companies launch dozens cubesats monthly. Smallsats (including cubesats) are getting more and more power “hungry” which leads to an importance of thermal management system for this class of satellites. Neglect of thermal management system would lead to wrong design and failure of cubesat mission.

Design of a thermal management system for a cubesat necessitates use of thermal tools. Tools that are available commercially typically require deep knowledge of thermal physics. Additionally, these tools are complex and expensive which makes them unaffordable for small companies or universities. A freeware simplified thermal tool will be shared during class, which can be used by cubesat designers without thermal training. The defining feature of this tool is simplicity of use even for users without thermal background. Transient and steady-state analysis are available.