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Is there a heat dissipation reason why satellites are painted white instead of black? And if so, why are they white instead of a completely reflective surface?
by CoolGuySteve 8y ago
Is there a heat dissipation reason why satellites are painted white instead of black? And if so, why are they white instead of a completely reflective surface?
- dbasedweeb 8y agoWhy do you think they’re painted white? The flare itself is the result of reflections from the polished antennae which aren’t painted at all.
- cup-of-tea 8y agoWhite and black are really the same colour, or lack of colour. The moon is actually like tyre rubber. But a tyre being lit by the sun at night is still brighter than anything else.
- Sharlin 8y agoSatellites are not painted white. Satellite bodies are are typically covered with reflective thermal blankets made of materials like Mylar or Kapton [1][2][3]. However, what makes satellites reflect enough sunlight to be visible in the sky is not the blankets but solar panels or antennas. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_blanket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_blanket [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BoPET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BoPET [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapton