Date of Award

5-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical and Civil Engineering

First Advisor

Frank Bourne

Second Advisor

Hamidreza Najafi

Third Advisor

Barry Webster

Fourth Advisor

Ashok Pandit

Abstract

As the capacity of compact battery technology for spacecraft missions continue to improve, small payloads are less constrained by power limitations, thus relatively high-power applications may be considered. AddCube is a mission to develop a platform, conforming to the 6U CubeSat Standard capable of demonstrating on-orbit Additive Manufacturing technology. A critical concern is the development and demonstration of a thermal management design that is capable of handling the significant waste heat generated by the high-power Additive Manufacturing payload while maintaining component temperatures throughout the spacecraft within an acceptable range. This effort includes a trade study for the evaluation of candidate technologies, an analytical model and analysis of spacecraft thermal management design, testing to compare payload isolation and non-isolation from the spacecraft chassis, experimental validation of the analytical model, and development of future work. The thermal management design includes α/ε = 0.0989 coated passive fixed radiators, a passive thermal storage unit utilizing Eicosane as the phase change material, with the support of active heaters to enable a 135W Additive Manufacturing payload to operate in a 100% duty cycle condition.

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