The technology and science capabilities of SmallSats continue to grow with the increase of capabilities in commercial off the shelf components. However, the maturation of SmallSat hardware has also led to an increase in component power consumption, this poses an issue with using traditional passive thermal management systems (radiators, thermal straps, etc.) to regulate high-power components. High power output becomes limited in order to maintain components within their allowable temperature ranges. The aim of this study is to explore new methods of using additive manufacturing to enable the usage of heat pipe structures on SmallSat platforms up to 3U’s in size. This analysis shows that these novel structures can increase the capabilities of SmallSat platforms by allowing for larger in-use heat loads from a nominal power density of 4.7 x 10^3 W/m3 to a higher 1.0 x 10^4 W/m3 , an order of magnitude increase. In addition, the mechanical properties of the SmallSat structure are also explored to characterize effects to the mechanical integrity of the spacecraft. The results show that the advent of heat pipe integration to the structures of SmallSats will lead to an increase in thermal management capabilities compared to the current state-of-the-art systems, while not reducing the structural integrity of the spacecraft. In turn, this will lead to larger science and technology capabilities for a field that is growing in both the education and private sectors.

Smallsats such as CubeSats have a variety of growing applications in low Earth orbit (LEO), near Earth orbit (NEO), and deep space environments across communications, imaging, and more. Such applications have tight pointing requirements and thus an accompanying need for attitude control systems (ACS) with finer pointing capabilities and longer lifetimes. Current systems such as magnetorquers and reaction wheels have notable limitations. Magnetorquers lose applicability for many deep space applications while the latter is dependent on moving components and cannot be operated independently due to momentum saturation among other limitations. Micro-Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (μPPTs) can be designed for multi-axis control in space. The use of solid Teflon (PTFE) propellant to produce a controllably small impulse within the thrusters can enable increased fine pointing accuracy and precision. In this paper, a preliminary design of an 8-thruster set of breech-fed μPPTs is analyzed through mechanical simulation tools to address challenges posed by miniaturization into a 1U module. Mechanical challenges of miniaturizing a μPPT module are particularly driven by the volume constraint and the associated appropriate mass. Thermal analysis performed using C&R Thermal Desktop, addresses the thermal environment for various use cases, individual component heating, as well as heat transfer through the module. This directly informs component layout recommendations and thermal controls based upon maintaining operational temperature ranges for various use cases. This model as well as fabrication considerations inform material selections for various structures in the preliminary μPPT design. In this paper I will discuss the overall design of the PPT model that has been configured here at Arizona State University by the Sun Devil Satellite Laboratory. I will then discuss the findings of my thermal analysis that was performed using Thermal Desktop.