Thermal and structural design of PRELUDE, a nano-satellite for observing earthquake-preceding ionospheric fluctuation phenomena

Abstract

Nihon University and the University of Shizuoka are jointly developing the W6U (366 x 227.3 x 100 mm) nano-satellite ”PRELUDE”. PRELUDE aims at early prediction of earthquakes by elucidating the physical mechanism of electromagnetic phenomena (ionospheric electron density variations).This paper examines the thermal design of PRELUDE that satisfies the allowable temperature range of onboard equipment in all thermal environments that the satellite system may be subjected to during mission operations, taking into account the limited power and structural resources unique to CubeSat. In order to confirm that the design is satisfied, thermal mathematical models were constructed for both nodal analysis and Thermal Desktop, and the thermal design was evaluated under several conditions.