Name: Amrutha Lakshmi Vadladi
Affiliation: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Conference ID : ASI2022_606
Title : Daksha: Thermal design and simulations of the payload
Authors : Amrutha Lakshmi Vadladi (IIT Bombay), Gaurav Waratkar (IIT Bombay), Deepak Marla (IIT Bombay), Prabhu Ramachandran (IIT Bombay), Salil Kulkarni (IIT Bombay), Rakesh Mote (IIT Bombay), Varun Bhalerao (IIT Bombay)
Abstract Type: Oral
Abstract Category : Instrumentation and Techniques
Abstract : A reliable and robust thermal control system for a spacecraft is essential for operating it at minimum cost, mass, and power consumption to ensure the long life of the electronics and structures onboard. This poster presents the thermal design based on the finite element method to establish an operational thermal control system for the Daksha satellite, which is to be placed in a low-earth equatorial orbit. All the thermal subsystems of the payload and their design performance are also discussed. The heat dissipated by all the detectors onboard the proposed Daksha satellite payload sums up to as high as 660 W. Also, the scientific requirement of the satellite to have a high effective surface area comes at the cost of substantial external heat flux getting irradiated on it. Since the detectors can only function efficiently within the acceptable temperature range of 0 to 20 degrees C, the thermal subsystem plays a critical role in the Daksha mission. We explored different orientations of the payload subsystems, designs of radiator plate and heat pipes, thermal insulations, and an estimate of the payload temperature budget. A preliminary design gave unacceptably high mean temperatures ranging from 10 to 40 degrees C for the detector plates, besides large temperature swings per orbit. The design was further optimized to bring down their temperatures to a range of -2.5 to 6 degrees C, suitable for the operation of the detectors. Finally, based on the analysis, the possible future upgrades for the satellite are presented.