In 2014 KTH Royal Institute of Technology initiated a space technology and research
center, KTH Space Centre. MIST (MIniature Student saTellite) is the rst student
project conducted at KTH Space Centre and also the rst student satellite from KTH
with a predicted launch in 2017. This report includes the thermal analysis and control
of the spacecraft MIST.
One of the main systems in a spacecraft is the thermal control system. In order for
the payloads and subsystems to withstand the harsh thermal environment in space a
thorough thermal analysis is needed. In this project the thermal model has been built
and thermal control design of the spacecraft has been started. As a start a preliminary
thermal analysis was performed where the spacecraft was approximated as a sphere in
order to get some estimates on the temperature in orbit due to the space environment.
Furthermore the temperature decrease in eclipse was studied. Since most of the spacecraft
will consist of Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) the thermal behavior of PCB has
been investigated and as a part of this investigation a thermal vaccum chamber test
was performed where the conductance from a PCB through the mounting interface to
a metal plate was measured. This report will also guide the reader through the model
built and assumptions made. As a part of the thermal control, Multi Layer Insulation
(MLI) has been studied and modeled in two di erent ways which have been compared
with each other in order to know the level of detail needed for the MLI model.
Last but not least the design of the thermal control system has been started where some
payloads have been wrapped in MLI and thermal contact conductance coecient has
been changed in order to meet the thermal requirements of the payloads and subsystems.