Speaker
Description
Exploring deep space with CubeSats pushes the boundaries of small satellite engineering into highly
ambitious and technically demanding domains.
While CubeSats have gained strong heritage in low Earth orbit applications, operating in deep space
introduces a new set of thermal challenges. Designing an effective thermal control system (TCS) under
such conditions—within tight constraints on mass, volume, surface area, and power—requires
tailored and highly efficient solutions.
This abstract presents the thermal design of the HENON mission (HEliospheric pioNeer for sOlar and
interplanetary threats defeNce), a 12U XL CubeSat developed by Argotec. HENON is Europe’s first
stand-alone CubeSat for deep space, targeting a Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) to carry out
autonomous heliophysics and space weather monitoring. The mission is currently approaching its
Critical Design Review (CDR) and acts as a pathfinder for future deep space CubeSat platforms.
All the work presented have been conducted with a strong focus on rapid development and analysis
turnaround. The work starts from preliminary ESATAN thermal models (TMM and GMM) and traces
their evolution toward a more detailed configuration, including numerical statistics and reflections on
modelling strategies and computational effort. Description of the orbital thermal environment will be
then discussed, highlighting the modelling approach adopted and the assumptions that shaped key
decisions. The guiding principle has been to maximize representativeness while ensuring fast analysis
turnaround.
The work will then outline the evolution of the Thermal Control System design. Starting from the
basics, a survey of power density across a wide range of satellites, particularly CubeSats, will be
presented to clearly define the context, highlighting the unique characteristics of the HENON project
with the aim to support key thermal design decisions that follow. Considerations of both hardware
solutions and operational strategies will be discussed, guiding through the development of the final
purpose-built Thermal Control System, which will then be detailed and assessed.
After the thermal design, the development of the HENON Structural-Thermal Model (STM) will be
presented, highlighting the engineering choices that guided its design to achieve the highest possible
thermal representativeness, thereby directly enabling a meaningful and reliable upcoming TVAC test
campaign.
The critical challenges encountered and the innovative solutions devised throughout the HENON
project represent a significant step forward in the field of thermal design for Cubesats. These
experiences not only demonstrate the feasibility of ambitious thermal control strategies in constrained
platforms like CubeSats, but also offer a valuable knowledge base that can inspire and guide the next
generation of deep-space CubeSat missions