3 ms·

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that radiating heat is actually really hard in space. It seems counter intuitive, because space is so cold, but

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that radiating heat is actually really hard in space. It seems counter intuitive, because space is so cold, but it's mostly a vacuum. To transfer heat, you need a medium for the heat to transfer through. I believe some heat can be lost due to radiation, and so they have these big metal fins as heat sinks to radiate as much heat as possible, and reflective material on the solar facing side to prevent more heat from being absorbed. The water, on the other hand, is a fantastic absorber of heat, and I'm guessing it's easier to drop one in the ocean, rather than launch one to space.

noir_lord 10y ago
> I believe some heat can be lost due to radiation. In hard space all the heat is lost as radiation (minus and incredibly tiny loss from hitting the very few particles in space), the dark side can be treat as a blackbody for a rough approximation. One of the reasons that the side exposed to the sun is mirrored is to reflect as much of the radiation falling on that side as possible as the heat is so hard to get rid off, people think the shiny part is gold but it's actually usually mylar or something stacked in a layered insulation. Space is a horrible environment to make things work, metals spontaneous weld themselves (vacuum welding), radical differentials in temperature depending on orientation, your electronics are constantly hammered by high energy radiation, micro impacts by things travelling at velocities that make a sniper rifle look like a slingshot, it's fascinating as a layman what it takes to keep stuff working reliably up there at all.
nradov 10y ago
The Atomic Rockets site has some great information on how spacecraft heat radiators actually work. http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/basicdesign.php#powerplant http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/basicdesign.php...

noir_lord 10y ago

> I believe some heat can be lost due to radiation. In hard space all the heat is lost as radiation (minus and incredibly tiny loss from hitting the very few particles in space), the dark side can be treat as a blackbody for a rough approximation. One of the reasons that the side exposed to the sun is mirrored is to reflect as much of the radiation falling on that side as possible as the heat is so hard to get rid off, people think the shiny part is gold but it's actually usually mylar or something stacked in a layered insulation. Space is a horrible environment to make things work, metals spontaneous weld themselves (vacuum welding), radical differentials in temperature depending on orientation, your electronics are constantly hammered by high energy radiation, micro impacts by things travelling at velocities that make a sniper rifle look like a slingshot, it's fascinating as a layman what it takes to keep stuff working reliably up there at all.

nradov 10y ago

The Atomic Rockets site has some great information on how spacecraft heat radiators actually work. http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/basicdesign.php#powerplant http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/basicdesign.php...