A conventional spacecraft structural function has been limited to supporting loads and mounting avionics only; whereas the technology 'multifunctional structures' can integrate the thermal and electronic functions into their inherent load-bearing capability. In addition, they can provide the sufficient radiation shielding effectiveness for expected mission environment. By this concept, the ratio of electrical functionality to spacecraft volume can be dramatically increased and the significant mass savings can be obtained. In this paper, Spacecraft electronics are miniaturized by using advanced IT applications such as flexible circuitry, miniaturized components and feather-weight connectors and so on; thus they can be easily embedded within a structural panel. A sandwich structural panel consists of aluminum honeycomb-core and lightweight CFRP face-sheets. Integration of electronics within the panel is implemented by mounting electronics on a multi-layered composite enclosure with multi materials. This composite enclosure provides the load-bearing, passive thermal conduction link, radiation shielding capabilities as well as available space for electronics mounting. A series of environmental tests and analyses are discussed to demonstrate the flight hardware is qualified for the expected mission environments. This approach will be utilized for the advanced small satellite ' STSAT-3' to validate the multi-functional structures concept.
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