Thermal design and validation of radiation detector for the ChubuSat-2 micro-satellite with high-thermal-conductive graphite sheets

This paper describes thermal design of the radiation detector (RD) for the ChubuSat-2 with the use of high-thermal-conductive materials. ChubuSat-2 satellite is a 50-kg-class micro-satellite joint development with Nagoya University and aerospace companies. The main mission equipment of ChubuSat-2 is a RD to observe neutrons and gamma rays. However, the thermal design of the RD encounters a serious problem, such as no heater for RD and electric circuit alignment constrain. To solve this issue, the RD needs a new thermal design and thermal control for successful space missions. This paper proposes high-thermal-conductive graphite sheets to be used as a flexible radiator fin for the RD. Before the fabrication of the device, the optimal thickness and surface area for the flexible radiator fin were determined by thermal analysis. Consequently, the surface area of flexible radiator fin was determined to be 8.6×104 mm2. To verify the effects of the flexible radiator fin, we constructed a verification model and analyzed the temperature distributions in the RD. Also, the thermal vacuum test was performed using a thermal vacuum chamber, which was evacuated at a pressure of around 10−4 Pa, and its internal temperature was cooled at −80 °C by using a refrigerant. As a result, it has been demonstrated that the flexible radiator fin is effective. And the thermal vacuum test results are presented good correlation with the analysis results.