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Preliminary studies of the impact on temperature of a high-power laser

on-board a 6U Cubesat

Edemar Morsch Filho*a, Rodrigo Santiagoa, Mateus M. B. Costaa, Kleber V. Paivaa, Talita S.
Possamaia, Renato Obaa, Vicente P. Nicolaub and Gary B. Hughesc
a
Thermal Fluid Flow Group – T2F, Department of Mobility Engineering, Federal University of
Santa Catarina, Joinville, SC, Brazil; b Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of
Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil; c California Polytechnic State University, Statistics
Department, 25-107G, 1 Grand Avenue, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407-0405

ABSTRACT

Numerical simulation of heat transfer on a 6U CubeSat is performed. The spacecraft’s primary mission is a space
environment demonstration of a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) project for the measurement of asteroid
composition using a high-power laser. The laser works on cycles of 10 seconds on and 10 minutes off. Approximately
200 W is dissipated as heat when the laser is on. Attitude control mechanisms maintain the laser pointing towards the
target, and also keep the spacecraft between the sun and the target. Simulations are performed using ANSYS CFX;
boundary conditions are inserted as User Defined Functions. Mechanical design includes a network of heat pipes and
passive radiative surfaces for heat distribution and expulsion. Four cases are addressed, all with orbit inclination of 90°
and 650 km altitude. Two simulations have ascending node equal to 90°, named as hot cases. The remaining two cases
have ascending node equal to 0, referred to as cold cases. For the hot case and laser turned off, the maximum and
minimum temperatures obtained are 344 K and 282 K, respectively. Temperatures of 352 K and 287 K are found for this
same orbit, but with the laser on. For the cold case and laser always off, extreme onboard temperatures are 334 K and
263 K, and with laser working, extremes are 342 K and 268 K. In all simulations the highest temperatures are on surfaces
facing the sun while the lowest are on the opposite side. For the operating mode of the laser, its results for range of
temperature on orbit are outside the suggested from manufacturer.
Keywords: nanosatellite, laser, numerical analyses, thermal control.

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The concept of NIAC
NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is a program which gives opportunities to grow visionary ideas that may
someday change the future of space missions, either with new brand aerospace technologies and concepts or
improvements in well-established technologies1. The mission in this paper is part of NIAC and is called molecular
composition analysis of distant targets. The goal of the mission is to probe the molecular composition of some solar
system targets, like asteroids, planets and even others further away targets.
To prove the feasibility of the mission, a 6U CubeSat (mother ship) that carries a laser and another spacecraft will be
launched in a circular Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The laser will be used for a Remote Laser Evaporative Molecular
Absorption (R-LEMA) spectroscopy which its primary task is to measure composition of diverse substances. The laser
will point towards the target, as for example another CubeSat, and heats up its surface, evaporating the superficial
material of the object. A molecular cloud (plume) will form and then be analyzed by the infrared absorption
spectroscopy2. In the present paper, the thermal field of the 6U CubeSat in LEO is simulated.

*
[email protected]; phone 55 48 3721 9390

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1.2 Structure and components

The main components on board of NIAC are listed on Table 1 together with their respective power consume and
operational limits of temperature. It is observed that the laser and battery have particular scenarios of operation in terms
of temperature. In addition to that, the energy required to proper function of the laser is much greater than the other’s
equipment. The laser that will be used in the mission is an element e18 Fiber Coupled Diode Laser®. This equipment
offers up to 220 W of output power from a 200 μm fiber and wavelengths of 793, 808, 885, 915, 940, 969, 976 nm under
a stabilized spectrum over temperature and current. The laser operates in cycles with approximately 10 s on followed by
10 minutes off. During its operational mode, around 200 W is converted into heat and dissipates through the structure by
conduction and radiation.
Table 1. Operational parameters of main parts of the CubeSat.
Part Consume [W] Temperature range [K]
Laser3 Operational 512 293 to 308
Laser Stand-by 0 253 to 343
Spectrometer4 1.40 253 to 313
Reaction wheel5 0.18 263 to 343
Micro thruster6 2.00 253 to 343
ADCS control7 1.00 263 to 333
Antenna8 4.00 253 to 333
Antenna deployment mechanism9 2.00 253 to 333
Attitude sensor10 0.36 263 to 343
Computer11 0.55 248 to 338
12
Battery Charge 0.02 273 to 318
Battery Discharge 0.02 253 to 333
Structure13 0 233 to 353
Photovoltaic panel14 0 233 to 358
Preliminary simulations of heat transfer on this satellite are conducted to get insight about the thermal environment that it
will face on orbit. The objective is to get useful results about its behavior and then guide the next steps for the
development of the CubeSat. To address these tasks, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are used to simulate its
transient temperature field for the extreme cases with and without eclipse of the Earth and in both configuration of laser
operational and stand-by.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Diverse methods to solve the problem of heat transfer on satellites are available in the literature, differing on complexity,
resolution, precision and computational cost, for both commercial and non-commercial software. The general idea
behind these methods is to divide a volume into smaller parts, solve the equations in these sub-domains and then group
the results to compose the solution of the whole domain. For problems of fluid mechanics, they are based on partial
differential equations (PDE) and referred to the laws of conservations, which require boundary conditions to be solved.
The most commons are the Lumped Parameter Method (LPM), Finite Difference Method (FDM), Finite Element Method
(FEM) and Finite Volume Method (FVM).
In LPM, a network method is used to represent the system. The spatial domain is divided into nodes and each point
represents one component of the Cubesat. The FDM differentiates from the LPM by discretizing spatially the physical
domain, where the equation is approximated by numerical finite differences based on Taylor’s series approach and
applied in the nodes. On the other hand, FEM applies a more complex numerical discretization than FDM and allows
higher degree of detailing of the phenomena, but the drawback is computational cost. In theory, FEM can predict the
solution in every point of domain because it uses functions to interpolate the results on the elements between the nodes.
FVM solves the problem in cells instead on nodes and integrates the PDEs over its boundaries. Its integral on volumes
results in a conservative method by nature, where the balances must necessarily close.
The influence of altitude, radiator area and material properties of satellite TUU-SAT1 was assessed through LPM
formulation15. The FEM method was applied to solve the temperature field of the microsatellite HAMSAT equipped with
passive thermal control. Its performance on orbit matches with the predictions obtained with the software IDEAS-

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TMG16. Numerical results of nanosatellite OUFTI-1 were confronted with Matlab/Simulink and ESATAN/ESARAD
software and results indicated inappropriate temperature field for the batteries. A heating system was designed and
showed potential to keep the batteries within the range of acceptable temperature17. Using FEM, the PiCPoT nanosatellite
was thermally simulated and the results were used to refine the project and attend the requirements of temperature.
Appropriate range of temperature was obtained by passive control, basically coatings and thermal tapes, but heaters were
designed for the batteries to prevent too cold scenarios18.
The temperature field of picosatellite YamSat was solved with the commercial software TRASYS and SINDA19. The
focus of the authors was the impact of superficial and material properties of the satellite and passive thermal control
methods were appropriate to keep all the subsystems working properly. FloripaSat-1 was simulated for diverse orbit
inclination under FVM formulation and the authors concluded that the eclipse and solar radiation were two parameters
that played important role in the temperature field of the satellite20. Influence of orbit inclination, altitude and spin rate
on the thermal analysis of CubeSats were already conducted on SINDA and Thermal Desktop, using a formulation LPM,
and the results indicated homogenization of temperature as the spin increases21. The CubeSat Turksat 3U was simulated
in ThermXL and authors found temperature fields within the hot temperatures but below the minimum temperatures,
concluding that heaters would be a simple solution to end this problem22, 23.
Observing the general aspects of these researches, they are focused on the extreme temperatures for hot and cold cases,
addressed by combination of attitude and energy harvesting. In general, small satellite face problem related to cold
temperatures, however none of them had massive generation of heat by modules as the present study, due to the laser
system.

3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 Orbit and attitude
As the CubeSat for project NIAC is an ongoing project, it is important to mention that some of the following
considerations are not representative of the current status of development of CubeSat NIAC. Few of the information used
to set the problem, especially about parameters of the laser, were not available when the simulations ran and estimations
were made to select representative values for this study. Nevertheless, the results and conclusions stand acceptable to
orientate this project, which is in the early stage and whose specific solutions of engineering are not yet defined.
The simulations are valid for a CubeSat 6U at the altitude of 650 km, circular orbit, inclination of 90º and zero spin
around its own axes. Two extreme scenarios are tested, one without eclipse of the Earth (hot case) and one with the
eclipse of the Earth (cold case). For each situation there are two different configurations, one with the laser operating for
10 seconds and turning off every 10 minutes and other with the laser always off. For all the cases, the satellite always
keeps the side +Y towards the Sun, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Orbit and attitude. a) Without eclipse; b) With eclipse.

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3.2 Thermal analysis

The simulations performed in this study have the idealization of gray, diffuse and opaque surfaces, resulting that the
emissivity and absorptivity are equal for any range of the radiation spectrum. The energy absorbed by radiation is
transferred throughout the structure of the satellite by conduction and a portion of it is emitted back to outer space by
radiative processes. Direct sunlight, albedo and infrared radiation of planets are the external sources of energy over the
satellite24, 25. The satellite only receives solar radiation when it is not under the eclipse. Albedo exists when it is on the
illuminated side of the Earth, whose peak coincides with the equatorial plane and the infrared radiation happens for the
entire orbit. For the case without eclipse, the satellite surrounds the Earth exactly at the border between night and day, so
only solar and infrared radiations reach the satellite while albedo is null.
The general energy equation of conservation is given by Equation 1.
dT
mc =Q , −Q +Q ∀ (1)
dt
where m is the mass of the volume, c the specific heat at constant pressure, T the temperature, t the time, Q , the net
radiative heat rate for that volume, Q the net conductive heat rate between adjacent volumes and Q the volumetric
source of heat generation of internal components multiplied by the volume ∀. Effects of convection are not considered in
this work.
The net radiative heat rate (Q , ) accounts for all the ways that the satellite exchanges heat by radiative processes. It is
the sum of direct absorbed radiation from Sun (Q ), absorbed radiation from reflectance of the Earth (Q ), absorbed
infrared radiation emitted from Earth (Q ) and emitted radiation from CubeSat to outer space (Q → ), as shown in
Equation 2.
Q , =Q +Q +Q −Q → (2)
In this work, the inner sides of the satellite are adiabatic (Q , = 0). This idealization avoids the formulation of
successive heat exchanges among surfaces inside the CubeSat and reduces the computational cost. As consequence, it is
expected that the value of temperature will be overestimated and underestimated in a few degrees for hot and cold parts
of the satellite, respectively.
Radiation from Sun is the most significant heat source for satellites in LEO. The constant value adopted here is Q =
1360 W/m² for the solar flux radiation and it is assumed that the solar rays are parallel24, 25. Absorbed solar radiation is
modeled by Equation 3.
Q =α Q A F → , Ψ (3)
where α is the satellite surface absorptivity in the Sun’s emission spectrum, A is the exposed area to the solar flux,
F → , is the view factor of the surface p in relation to the Sun and parameter Ψ is a step function created to become
zero when the satellite is under the shadow of the Earth26. The view factor of surface p towards the Sun is calculated by
Equation 4, which depends of the surface orientation (n ) and the position of the Sun (S).

n .S , n .S < 0
F → , = (4)
0, n .S ≥ 0
The absorbed albedo radiation is defined by Equation 5.
Q , = aα Q A F → , f (5)
where a is the albedo coefficient representing the reflected solar radiation from surface of the Earth and F → , is the
view factor between the surface p and Earth. The last term f models albedo as a specular source. Its peak coincides with
latitude 0 and Sun in zenith, calculated in Equation 6. R is the position on orbit of the satellite.
R .S
− , −R . S > 0
f= R (6)
0, −R . S ≤ 0

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The value off coefficient a changes acccordingly to characteristics

c s of surfaces of the Earth as soil, type of vegetationn,
presence of clouds
c and oceeans, so an inttermediary vaalue of 30 % is applied24. To calculate F → , it is s assumed thaat
Earth is a spherical emitteer whose dim mension is mucch bigger thaan the satellitee, and the vieew factor is function
fu of thee
ween the satelllite and the Eaarth, as well thhe angle betweeen these surffaces26.
distance betw
The last exteernal source of
o heat presented on the satellite
s is the absorbed innfrared radiattion from Earrth, written inn
Equation 7.
Q , =α Q A F → , (7)
where α is the surface absorptivity
a inn the infrared spectrum and the infrared radiation
r heat flux emitted by Earth (Q )
is constant annd equal to 237 W/m² 24, 25.
The satellite emits
e radiationn to outer spaace according to
t Equation 8.
Q → , =ε A σ T , −T (8)

where ε is the emissivitty of the surfface in the innfrared spectrrum, σ the Sttefan-Boltzmaann constant (5.67 10
W/m2K4), T , is the tempperature on the surface p annd T is the temperature
t o space, here cconsidered 2,7
of 7 K.
Heat conducttion through thet domain (Q Q ) is given by the inttegral form off the Fourier Law over thee surface of a
mal conductiviity of the mateerial, ∇T the gradient
differential voolume, where k is the therm g of tem d A the surfacee
mperature and
of the volumee, as shown inn Equation 9.

Q = k∇T
T. dA (9)

Besides radiaation heat excchange processses, the electtronic devicess may generaate heat. However, in this work
w they aree
neglected due to their loww power, exccept for the laaser, which dissipates
d 2000 W of heat eequally distrib
buted over itss
volume.
3.3 Numericc domain and
d convergencee criteria
As shown in Table 1, laserr is a critical component
c in the
t satellite an
nd for this reaason, the focuss is on its beh
havior and heaat
diffusivity thrroughout the structure.
s Figuure 2 shows thhe current eng
gineering moddel (a) and the simplified nu umeric domainn
(b). These addaptations keeep the compuutational cost low and facillitate the connstruction of tthe mesh and set up of thee
problem. Struucture (blue), solar panels (gray) and laaser (red) are in the model for the simullations. A maajor differencee
between bothh models thatt readers shouuld be aware is on the laser geometry,, shaped box for the curreent status andd
cylindrical foor the simulattions. It happeens because there
t was no information about
a this com
mponent when n the analysess
were conductted.

Figure 2. a) Current enggineering modell; b) Numeric domain for therm

mal simulationss.

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The external dimensions off the CubeSatt are 300 x 1000 x 200 mm, as a the standardd CubeSat 6U U27. Each side of the satellitee
is named acccordingly to itts frame of reeference, namely –X, +X, -Y, - +Y, -Z annd +Z. The noormal vector on side +Y iss
parallel to sollar rays and faaces the Sun. As the satellitte does not sp
pin around its axes, this sidee always poin nts towards thee
Sun, while thhe opposite (-YY) is every tinne under the shhadow and forr this reason thhere are not soolar panels in the +Y side.
A total of 4 unstructured
u h
hexahedra meeshes were crreated on the software Anssys ICEM forr the solar pan nels, laser andd
structure, as observed
o on Figure
F 3. Due to symmetry,, the top left and
a right partss of the structture, as well the bottom lefft
and right partts (Figure 2. a)
a have identiccal grids, but mirrored.
m The middle left annd right part oof the structuree (Figure 2. b))
are built withh two equal meshes,
m also opposed to eacch other. All the
t solar paneels (Figure 2. c) replicate th he same meshh
and the laser is constructedd as a singularr one (Figure 2.
2 d). The grid
d has a total off 185840 nodees and 136735 5 volumes.

a) b)

c) d)
Figure 3. Meshes
M of the numeric
n domainn.
The thermodyynamic properrties of the maaterials used inn the satellite are summarizzed in Table 22.
Table 2. Material
M propertty28.
Componnent Material
M ρ kg/m k W/mK ε [-] c kJ/kgK
Structuure A
Aluminum 2810 130 0.4 960
Boardd F
Fiberglass 2400 1.03 0.3 800
Solar Paanel F
Fiberglass 2810 1.03 0.3 800
Batterry Poolyethylene 9200 0.4 0.3 1250
Laser Copper 8933 401 0.3 385

As the laser was

w not definned until the end
e of this woork, a regularr material wass selected to rrepresent it. The
T choice forr
copper was because its goood properties for
f dissipationn of heat, whicch can be seenn as an extrem
me good scenarrio.
The transientt thermal simuulations are peerformed in thhe commerciaal software Annsys CFX, whhich bases on FVM to solvee
the conservaative energy equation. The convergencce criterion is i an error inn the balancee below 1% and periodicc
temperature fields
f for the points
p monitorred. This last condition
c is valid for cyclicc boundary conditions, as th
he case hereinn.

4 RESULT
4. TS
This section shows the ressults of tempeerature on the external surfaaces of the saatellite. One point for each side and laserr
are provided for a full connverged orbitt. Figure 4 shhows results of
o temperaturee for the orbiit without eclipse and laserr
always off. While
W extremee temperaturess on solar panels are around d 282 K and 3443 K, laser hhas an intermeediary value of
300 K. The small variationn on the fieldss come from the
t fact that thhe satellite does not spin annd the same siide (+Y) facess

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the Sun during the entire orbit. The oscillations, mainly on the other sides, are due the exposition to infrared radiation,
which does not happen constantly because of changes in the view factor as the satellite rounds the Earth. As expected,
the sides opposite to the Sun are the coldest because they only receive infrared radiation and heat through the structure.

360
350
340
Temperature [K]

330
320
310
300
290
280
270
260
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Time [s]
Laser X- X+ Y- Y+ Z- Z+
Figure 4. Hot case: Eclipse off and laser off.
Figure 5 is valid for the condition without eclipse but with the laser operating. The generation and dissipation of heat by
the laser is remarkable on its temperature data. The peaks occurring during the operation for 10 seconds and its cool
down for 10 minutes impact on the thermal field of the entire satellite. In general, all the points measured on the external
surfaces raise up their values around 10 K, while on the laser it is roughly 15 K. The extreme temperature of 352 K on
side Y+ is 65 K greater than the minimum registered on Z+. The operational cycle is fast and powerful enough to keep
the satellite warmer than previous case even when the laser is off. The diffusion of heat through the structure is quick due
good properties of conductivity of the aluminum. The variation of temperature in the laser around 5 K is small, but it
results from the thermodynamic properties set to it and valid for a solid cylinder of copper. For this condition, the laser
has an intermediary temperature when compared to the other points.

360
350
340
Temperature [K]

330
320
310
300
290
280
270
260
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Time [s]
Laser X- X+ Y- Y+ Z- Z+
Figure 5. Hot case: Eclipse off and laser on.
Results for the orbit with eclipse and laser off are available on Figure 6. Drastic changes occur in the thermal field,
especially because the shadow of the Earth observed in the center of the graph between 1700 s and 4000 s. The absence
of solar radiation drops the temperature, mainly on the side Y+ previously exposed to the Sun. The evidence of transient

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values is more evident, around 20 K for sides that never experience the Sun and 60 K for the opposite (Y+). The laser
also faces a gradient of 10 K and in general its temperature is closer to the vicinity. The maximum temperature on the
external sides is 334 K and the minimum is 263 K, however they do not occur at the same instant. The maximum of 59 K
and minimum of 9 K happen in the beginning and end of the shadow, respectively. Probably because the laser is
enclosed by the satellite and its thermal inertia, near the end of the shadow it is the hottest part measured.

360
350
340
Temperature [K]

330
320
310
300
290
280
270
260
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Time [s]
Laser X- X+ Y- Y+ Z- Z+
Figure 6. Cold case: Eclipse on and laser off.
Figure 7 presents the results for the case of orbit with eclipse and configuration of laser turned on, according to its
operational cycle. As observed on Figure 5, the values increase for this condition, however the shadow is still able to
reduce the overall temperatures. Augmentation not greater than 5 K are observed in the laser during its cycle of
operation, but now its extreme temperature is over 310 K while the minimum is bigger than 300 K. The greatest
difference of temperature is 63 K at the beginning of the shadow and 18 K at the end. For this condition, the laser is
warmer than other parts of the satellite during half of the time under the shadow and assumes intermediary values for the
remaining time.

360
350
340
Temperature [K]

330
320
310
300
290
280
270
260
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Time [s]
Laser X- X+ Y- Y+ Z- Z+
Figure 7. Cold case: Eclipse on and laser on.
The temperatures on the laser for each condition are plotted in Figure 8, as well its temperature limits for the operational
and stand-by mode. For the condition in which laser is not working (red and blue dot lines), in both cases with and
without eclipse, its temperature ranges on orbit are appropriate when compared to the recommended values of the

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manufacturer (see Table 1). However, when the laser is operating (red and blue lines), the satellite structure itself fails to
provide appropriate thermal dissipation. During the whole orbit, laser temperature is outside of the recommended range
for the case without eclipse, while with eclipse and laser operating there are periods where the temperatures are above
the safety condition. In both cases, the satellites fails due overheating of the laser. Due to the hypotheses assumed in the
modeling, particularly related to laser material, which is more conductive than the real equipment, laser thermal
dissipation inspires attention. Further analysis and solution for thermal control will be required.

345
335 Maximum stand-by temperature
325
Temperature [K]

315 Maximum operational temperature

305
295
285 Minimum operational temperature
275
265
Minimum stand by temperature
255
245
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Time [s]
Eclipse OFF & Laser OFF Eclipse OFF & Laser ON
Eclipse ON & Laser OFF Eclipse ON & Laser ON
Figure 8. Temperature on the laser for each scenario.

5. CONCLUSIONS
A preliminary study about the thermal behavior of the 6U CubeSat under NIAC project was conducted through
numerical simulations in CFD for two conditions of eclipse and laser operation. A simplified model of the satellite
structure and laser was implemented to investigate the initial thermal conditions cubesat may be exposed in LEO. The
attitude of one side facing the Sun resulted in high temperature gradients, with one surface always hotter than remaining.
Concern must be taken about the excessive heat generation in the laser system that overheats and jeopardizes the
mission. Further studies are required to understand how harmful it is and what technology could mitigate this problem.
Passive thermal controls devices could be employed since there are colder spots in the satellite for every instant of orbit.
For future studies, it is suggested to update the numeric model with more precise information about the laser, especially
about its geometry, thermodynamic properties, power dissipation and operational cycle. The temperature over the
batteries should also be simulated to identify hazardous conditions for their proper operation and then propose solutions
to avoid failure in the power supply and in the overall mission of CubeSat NIAC.

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS
The present work was realized with the support of CNPQ, National Council of Scientific and Technological
Development – Brazil, for providing the scholarship under grant number 141276/2018-5.

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