3 ms·
I noticed the word “heat” is not mentioned anywhere in the article. Considering this reflects 2% of the incident light and absorbs 98% of the sunlight, I would
by rbanffy 4mo ago
I noticed the word “heat” is not mentioned anywhere in the article. Considering this reflects 2% of the incident light and absorbs 98% of the sunlight, I would expect the cubesat to get very hot very quickly.
It’s been a while since I last engineered something where thermals were a consideration, but this just doesn’t feel right.
- cyberax 4mo agoI think it only needs to be on the Earth side of the satellite?
- schiffern 4mo agoCorrect. This is why SpaceX rejected using black coatings alone for Starlink. Mirrored surfaces that they tested instead were darker than VANTA black.[0] On some surfaces they use a SpaceX-designed coating called Low Reflectivity Black, which is the least specular space-rated paint by a factor of 5.[1] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNc5yCYth5E#t=2430s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNc5yCYth5E#t=2430s [1] https://starlink.com/public-files/BrightnessMitigationBestPracticesSatelliteOperators.pdf https://starlink.com/public-files/BrightnessMitigationBestPr...