Heat transfer model of a small size satellite on geostationary orbit

The purpose of the study is to compute an approached satellite thermal model to be able to estimate the heat transfer and the maximum temperature through the harmonic gear for small size geostationary satellite. We use finite element method using known data with Nastran In-CAD FEM software. The presented results show temperature gradients compatible with experimental information. Though the results are not correlated with dedicated tests, they seems to be in line with what can be found in literature. The paper use these information in dedicated analysis related to impact of temperature gradient in precision mechanism. The second purpose of the study is to show that simplified tools and methods allows to reach results sufficient for preliminary analysis. The space business is changing fast with growing private companies that are challenging conservative space standards. A simplified analysis allowing to reduce cost and increase competitiveness is presented.