Thermal Analysis of a Spectrometer Mounted on a Geostationary Transfer Orbit CubeSat

Thermal modelling and analysis of CubeSats is needed to have control over its final platform performance. In this paper, we present the method and the thermal analysis results applied to an infrared spectrometer for a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) mission, on board the 6U CubeSat named SpectroCube, developed and funded by the European Space Agency. Three challenges have been addressed: first, to maintain the correct temperature range for the spectrometer in a high-density platform with different surrounding thermal requirements; second, external radiation flux intensity from the Earth changes considerably along the orbit; and third, internal dissipation and external heat loads are significant with respect to the heat evacuation available area. Thermal analysis made in ESATAN-TMS 2019 has been used to improve and modify the layout of the payload mechanical design and to achieve the thermal control system requirements. Main mission parameters, orbit thermal characteristics, power dissipated and thermal requirements are presented. The results show that both active and passive thermal control are needed to maintain the payload's components within their temperature ranges. (C) 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.