Leveraging surface topologies and additive manufacturing for CubeSat thermal control

Abstract

Miniature satellites, and in particular CubeSats, have provided an economical platform to conduct experiments in a space environment for universities and small research organizations alike. This has now caught the eye of larger aerospace companies and government to develop CubeSats for a multitude of other uses. The rapid development of this platform has seen the desire to place more and more complicated experiments within the craft placing critical stress on thermal management. The small size of a CubeSat introduces size constraints of the thermal management which is also competing for real estate with other space craft sub-systems. Additive manufacturing may produce an avenue to maximize design space by incorporating complexity, in essence, for free through the process itself. This investigation looks at surface topology as a passive means to effectively dissipate waste heat for a given special constraint. The theoretical curve, given by Stefan and Boltzmann, suggests that changes to surface topology could increase heat transfer without bound. It is also investigated whether or not this can truly happen in nature. Results of numerical studies show reduction of surface temperatures by approximately 70% when compared to typical planar geometry used presently on CubeSats and full-scale satellites.