Investigation of Insulation Effect on Spacecraft Thermal Control System

The thermal control system (TCS) is an integral part of spacecraft (SC). Its purpose is to maintain all the components of a spacecraft within their respective temperature limits. Considering orbital position and attitude of spacecraft, different sources of thermal energy acting on a spacecraft; solar radiation, albedo, earth emitted infrared, and heat generated by on-board equipment. Therefore, the thermal control system is different for every spacecraft. In general, the thermal control system is composed of two different types of systems the passive and active. SC model in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is created by thermal desktop program, in order to launch a parametric study to check design of thermal control elements ( Radiators, Heaters, MLI ) by calculating the temperature field along the equipment panel and verify that the maximum and minimum temperature of the lower sheet of the panel is within the design range of temperature from 0 degrees C up to 35 degrees C .Verifying the optimum selection of the power of heaters and the correct distribution of them along the panel zones is performed by increasing or decreasing the area of MLI on the upper sheet of the panel, which controls the amount of heat dissipation from SC, so we can save more power consumption of electric heaters.