A small satellite equipped with a self-developed bus with the high-resolution optical remote sensing instrument (RSI) by integrating NSPO with the ITRC (Instrument Technology Research Center) of NARL was developed under the FORMOSAT-5 satellite program. Solar cell efficiency is temperature related. When the solar panel temperature is over 75℃, the efficiency degrades apparently. FORMOSAT-5 satellite solar power system is compacted due to the limited solar panel sizes at the current configuration. Reducing solar panel temperatures could help increase the availability of generated solar power. The objective of this thermal analysis is to reduce the solar array temperature by thermal control
design. The solar panel temperatures with and without radiator under
various thermal conditions including different beta angles, summer and
winter seasons, solar panel configuration, and operating modes as supplied
by electric power subsystem(EPS) designers are calculated. From different
case studies and with radiators applied to the solar panels backside, the
thermal control subsystem(TCS) predict solar panel flight temperature and
support data to EPS subsystem predict the power margin. The power margin
percentage will increase best to about 8.20% from EPS subsystem
predictions and at this condition the maximum temperature can be reduced
from 103℃ to 95.7℃ or about 7.3℃ for hot condition. This improves the
solar panel efficiency for hot condition.