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Description
The HEliospheric pioNeer for sOlar and interplanetary threats defeNce (HENON) satellite is a 12U cubesat aimed at monitoring the Sun’s weather while orbiting around the Lagrangian point L2. In order to transmit almost real-time data back to Earth, the spacecraft requires a powerful yet compact communication suite, which comprises the satellite’s highest dissipating component. As a result, the spacecraft presents a very high power density, which poses a significant challenge from the heat dissipation point of view. Thermal management of the satellite has thus become a critical factor within the design process. To overcome this issue, two K-Core® radiator panels, provided by Boyd Thermal by Eaton, were chosen to be used on the highest-dissipating side of the satellite. These panels are composed of an annealed pyrolytic graphite (APG) core encapsulated in an aluminum shell. Such panels are intended to strongly increase the in-plane heat spreading capabilities of the spacecraft panels with respect to typical aluminum panels, in order to maximize the radiative capabilities of the satellite to dissipate the excessive heat towards deep space.
As the HENON satellite is set to launch early next year, a rigorous thermal test campaign on the two K-Core® radiator panels was required in order to obtain a correlated thermal mathematical model (TMM) of the panels to be coupled with the correlated TMM of the HENON satellite, resulted from the HENON STM test campaign.
The thermal test campaign was performed on the engineering model (EM) of the K-Core® panels at the Argotec facility in San Mauro Torinese.
This work presents an overview of the two custom-made K-Core® radiator panels, along with the rationale that led to their choice. The TVAC test campaign is then presented, comprising the rationale behind the test and the test set-up itself. Finally, TMM definition and the subsequent correlation process on the ESATAN-TMS software are presented, highlighting two different approaches that were considered: firstly, a layered model was adopted, where each layer of material comprising the K-Core® panels was represented by different geometries; then an equivalent model was analyzed, where the whole panel was modeled by a single geometry, to which equivalent properties were assigned. This work also presents the difference between the two modeling approaches and their respective results, along with the rationale that led to the ultimate choice.
This work is intended to provide guidelines for thermal design, test and correlation of such peculiar thermal management solutions, which could one day become common solutions for high power density deep space cubesats.