Thermal analysis of the electronics of a CubeSat mission

CubeSat satellites are small cube-shaped space platforms that are very popular among academic, research and start-up communities mostly due to their reduced mission costs and short development time. This comes with an easy access to space, which enables high risk missions that would not be feasible otherwise. Thus, most of the subsystems available for these satellites have been adapted to a rather fast development methodology. However, thermal control engineering is still somewhat overlooked due to its complexity and long-term development characteristics. Moreover, since CubeSat projects often rely in commercial off-the-shelf components, it is necessary to understand their necessities in terms of thermal control. The main reason for this is because these components are not originally designed to operate in the space environment, and may degrade faster when operated either under too hot or too cold conditions. In this context, this article presents the results of several thermal analyses and tests conducted over power amplifiers and field-programmable gate array devices, commonly used in CubeSat subsystems and payloads. Passive thermal control methods, mostly based on thermal straps, are explored as potential thermal control solutions due to their low cost and development constraints.