Final Design and Performance of the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) Detector Thermal System
Abstract
Cooling an imaging detector to 70-80 °C below its surroundings is a non-trivial task in a size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) constrained CubeSat bus. The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a 6U CubeSat containing a COTS 2 megapixel Teledyne e2v CCD that demands a target temperature of at or below −50 °C to achieve its goal of obtaining NUV (~250 –330 nm) transit spectra of close-orbiting exoplanets. To this end, a sophisticated cooling system was developed utilizing a diverse array of cutting-edge materials and processes: a 3-stage thermoelectric cooler was coupled to the detector with Boron-doped Arathane epoxy and coupled to a radiator panel by way of gold, indium-tin, copper, epoxy, and graphene elements. Discussed here is the final flight thermo-mechanical design of this system, the finite-element and analytic modeling techniques employed to arrive at said design, the approach used to empirically verify the design’s mechanical (vibratory) and thermal performance, and the practices and methods used to realize its creation.
Final Design and Performance of the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) Detector Thermal System
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Cooling an imaging detector to 70-80 °C below its surroundings is a non-trivial task in a size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) constrained CubeSat bus. The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a 6U CubeSat containing a COTS 2 megapixel Teledyne e2v CCD that demands a target temperature of at or below −50 °C to achieve its goal of obtaining NUV (~250 –330 nm) transit spectra of close-orbiting exoplanets. To this end, a sophisticated cooling system was developed utilizing a diverse array of cutting-edge materials and processes: a 3-stage thermoelectric cooler was coupled to the detector with Boron-doped Arathane epoxy and coupled to a radiator panel by way of gold, indium-tin, copper, epoxy, and graphene elements. Discussed here is the final flight thermo-mechanical design of this system, the finite-element and analytic modeling techniques employed to arrive at said design, the approach used to empirically verify the design’s mechanical (vibratory) and thermal performance, and the practices and methods used to realize its creation.
