4 ms·
I think the heat would be just radiated out passively. Most space hardware, I'm told, needs to operate at -10°C – 50°C, and withstand continuous temperature fl
by metafunctor 10y ago
I think the heat would be just radiated out passively. Most space hardware, I'm told, needs to operate at -10°C – 50°C, and withstand continuous temperature fluctuations between those extremes caused by solar heat.
- Something1234 10y agoI thought that space would have a low thermal conductivity, meaning that things with a high tdp (big iron) would just hold the heat, and not much would transfer. As I remember from high school physics, radiation is the least efficient form of heat transfer.
- metafunctor 10y agoCorrect. That's why I said the way to lose heat in a satellite is by radiation.
- mnw21cam 10y agoEver heard of the Stefan-Boltzmann Law? This dictates the maximum amount of energy that can be radiated from an object per unit area for a specific temperature. The power is proportional to the fourth power of the temperature. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/stefan.html http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/stefan.htm... So for example if you have 300W worth of TDP, and a perfect black body radiator of half a square metre, then the radiator temperature is already going to hit your maximum CPU temperature of 50C, assuming it is perfectly shadowed from both the sun and the earth.
- metafunctor 10y agoSure, I have studied these things a couple of decades ago. Now that I read my comment above I realize it was badly worded. I didn't mean to say all heat would simply be radiated without posing a problem. I meant that the only way for a body to lose energy in space is by radiation (without ejecting matter, I suppose).