Some Aspects of Small Spaceсraft Thermal-Vacuum Testing

The number of small satellites has increased drastically in the last decade. Thermal testing is a necessary step for numerous projects. It includes thermal modeling, manufacturing of thermal models, thermal vacuum tests. Thermal modeling is often important to establish feasibility and verify requirements for a mission. The work is time and money consuming. The study presents a new approach to thermal model testing and thermal vacuum testing. It enables us to improve the quality and flexibility of modeling, as well as reduce the duration of testing the expensive thermal experimental models and samples in the thermal vacuum chamber. According to the developed methodology, the calculation of simplified thermal models should start at the stage of structure and thermal model development. Simplification and acceleration of the thermal modeling is achieved by thermal parameters analysis which leads to higher accuracy of the thermal model. This allows for determining the necessary parameters of a thermal model without additional tests on the early stages of the project and choosing the simplest thermal scheme with optimal temperature control system.

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