Thermal Modeling in Support of the Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks Project

摘要

NASA's Edison program is intending to launch a swarm of at least 8 small satellites in 2013. This swarm of 1.5U Cubesats, the Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks (EDSN) project, will demonstrate intra-swarm communications and multi-point in-situ space physics data acquisition. In support of the Critical Design Review (CDR) of the EDSN satellites, a geometrically accurate thermal model has been constructed. Due to the low duty cycle of most components, no significant overheating issues were found. The predicted mininum temperatures of the batteries and external antennas are cold enough, however, that some mitigation may be in order. The development and application of the model will be discussed in detail.