7.0 Thermal Control - NASA
All spacecraft components have a range of allowable temperatures that must be maintained to meet survival and operational requirements during all mission phases. Spacecraft temperatures are determined by how much heat is absorbed, stored, generated, and dissipated by the spacecraft. Figure 7.1 shows a simplified overview of heat exchange from a satellite orbiting Earth, but the heating principles apply to any planet or body a spacecraft orbits.
The heat exchange depends on several factors listed below. Solar absorptivity and infrared (IR) emissivity are surface optical properties referenced below and are described further in section 7.2.1: Paints, Coatings, and Tapes. Thermal control of a spacecraft is achieved by balancing the energy as shown in Equation 1.
qsolar + qalbedo + qplanetshine + Qgen = Qstored + Qout,rad (1)
