Prediction of temperature variation in a rotating spacecraft in space environment

This paper presents a closed-form prediction model for the temperature distribution of a thick-walled cylindrical space vehicle subjected to solar heating in deep space. The model is based on the coupling between dynamics and solar radiation. Since solar radiation is, in general, incident from a fixed direction, one side of the space vehicle will be shone bright, and the other side dark. Thus the space astronauts, instruments, and cryogenic-fuel tanks are gaining heat on the bright side and losing heat from the dark side. This radiative heat gain and loss become equally significant as the conductive heat transfer through the interior of the space vehicle. Thermal analysis is carried out to predict the effect of the spinning speed and angular position on the temperature variation and gradients attained by speed vehicles outside the Earth’s atmosphere. This analysis is based on the non-linearity of the radiative heat dissipation, the significant conductive heat transfer role, and combined boundary conditions that involve the temperature and angular position of the vehicle. An exact analytical solution is obtained inspite of the non-linearity and non-homogeneity in the boundary conditions. The results indicate that the temperature distribution on the outer surface of the space vehicle is nearly independent of the angular position; at sub-cylindrical surface, this independence is achieved at low angular velocity.