State-Space Thermal Control for Cubesats

Abstract

Maintaining a stable thermal environment is critical for space telescopes. Effects suchas thermal expansion can change the geometric relationship between optical components, impacting the accuracy of wavefront sensing and control algorithms for deformable mirrors and ultimately producing blurry images. To this end, this thesis focuses on developing a discrete state-space model for a CubeSats optical system from nonlinear governing partial differential equations. Furthermore, a feedback control methodology is used to ensure precise temperature regulation. Model results in tandem with a high-fidelity thermal simulator validate the approach taken and an in-depth discussion of results is presented.