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Description
Thermal testing and validation of the satellite components are critical during the satellite development phase. In general, thermal contact conductance and heat flow path on the satellite components are verified through simulations and by performing thermal vacuum tests. In this paper, detailed thermal modelling, analysis, and testing of a 27U microsatellite’s avionics assembly are described. X-Band transceiver and a few in-house designed boards such as Command and Data Handling (CDH), Electrical Power Systems (EPS), and Payload Interface boards (PIB) are put together in a stack and integrated into a custom-designed aluminium casing for integrity and better thermal conduction. All the avionics boards in the stack are held in place using Kooler guides at both of its shorter edges to aid heat transfer from the boards to the casing. In addition to that, a thermal strap is used from the CDH to the aluminium casing to keep it within an acceptable limit during peak operation. The 27U satellite named ARCADE (Atmospheric Coupling and Dynamics Explorer) has two scientific instruments and an RGB imager as payloads and it has a 1U Iodine (I2)-based Ion thruster to perform Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) operation. The satellite is expected to be launched in 2022 from Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The avionics in the satellite is designed to go through different mission scenarios as different payloads operate at different durations. The actual on-orbit mission operation power profile is simulated inside the thermal vacuum chamber and on the ground to verify thermal contact conductance for some of the critical contacts.
