TOP.05 // STRUCT-THERM
Structures, Thermal Control & Solder Joint Fatigue
AlbaPod 1P backplate flexural rigidity, CDS Rev. 14.1 CubeSat rails, two-orbit transient thermal balance, α/ε surface coatings, and Engelmaier leadless solder fatigue.
1. SatWiki Encyclopedia Specifications (8)
- SQ-FF-003
ThinSat
Thin modules with a face close to that of a 1U CubeSat but only 1.25 cm thick. They fly in strings released into very low orbits and re-enter within days to two weeks.
- SQ-FF-004
TubeSat
Picosatellite kit sold by Interorbital Systems: a sixteen-sided prism of circuit boards, 8.94 cm across and 12.7 cm long, weighing 0.75 kg, meant to fly on the company’s own rocket.
- SQ-FF-005
ChipSat (Sprite)
Gram-scale satellites built on a single circuit board. Cornell’s 4 g Sprites were released by the hundred from the KickSat-2 carrier in 2019 and sent data from orbit; in 2025 a PocketQube hosted a ChipSat of its own.
- SQ-FF-006
CanSat & Suborbital Model Satellites
Suborbital educational spacecraft packaged inside a standard 330 mL beverage can envelope (Ø66 × 115 mm, 300–350 g) or a two-stage container–payload cylinder (Ø125 mm, 600–1,000 g). Proposed by Bob Twiggs in 1998, the CanSat established the pedagogical foundation for both the 1999 CubeSat and 2009 PocketQube standards.
- SQ-FF-007
CubeSat Design Specification (CDS Rev. 14.1) & PC/104 Architecture
Mechanical, electrical, and operational requirements of Cal Poly’s CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 14.1 (1U–12U), corner rail tolerances, separation switches, and the 90×96 mm PC/104 avionics stack.
- SQ-SS-005
Structures and thermal control (STR/TCS)
The frame that carries launch loads, the mechanisms that deploy antennas and arrays, and the thermal design that keeps every part within its temperature range. Small-satellite frames are mostly machined aluminium; thermal control relies on surface finishes.
- SQ-EN-003
Testing and qualification
How a small satellite proves it will survive launch and work in orbit: model philosophy, vibration, thermal vacuum, bake-out, functional and deployment tests. Small teams test less than agencies, and the early failure statistics of CubeSats show what that costs.
- SQ-EN-004
Systems engineering & budgets
Coupled mass, power, link, thermal, data and Δv margin management for PocketQubes and CubeSats from concept to flight readiness.
2. Interactive Lab Calculators & Workbenches (4)
3. Technical Notes (3)
- NL-TN-2026-015
First natural frequency of the backplate and launch loads
Unlike a CubeSat held along four corner rails, a PocketQube is cantilevered in its deployer by a single 1.6 mm thick sliding backplate. We derive the plate's flexural rigidity and fundamental modal frequency across Al 6061-T6, Al 7075-T73, Ti-6Al-4V and FR-4, and evaluate 3σ dynamic deflection under GSFC-STD-7000B (GEVS) random vibration.
- NL-TN-2026-020
CubeSat corner rail tribology, PC/104 stack mechanics and PQ9/CS14 backplanes
We examine the mechanical and electrical backbone of a CubeSat: the four 8.5 mm corner rails that interface with the deployer, the tribology of MIL-A-8625 Type III hard anodizing against vacuum cold welding, and the dynamic stiffness of a four-rod M3 PC/104 PCB stack compared against PocketQube 42×42 mm M2 stacks and the PQ9/CS14 backplane standard.
- NL-TN-2026-005
Thermal response of a PocketQube: why a lighter spacecraft cycles harder
We quantify, with two lumped models of increasing fidelity, why PocketQubes follow the orbital forcing more closely than CubeSats. Linearized radiation gives a thermal time constant of 56 minutes for a fully loaded 1P against 104 minutes for a 2 kg 1U. Integrating a single-node energy balance at 550 km gives bulk swings of 30 K for a 250 g 1P and 37 K at 200 g, against 23 K and 16 K for 1U CubeSats of 1.33 and 2.00 kg. The surface finish moves the mean temperature by tens of kelvin, while the cells that cover most faces leave little freedom. An Engelmaier screening turns the swings into median lives of about one year for germanium-based cells soldered rigidly to FR-4. We close with design rules for the bulk node, the battery and the joints.
4. Research Monographs (3)
- SQ-R-004
Materials-initiated failures and screening gaps in CubeSat and PocketQube missions
- SQ-R-003
Non-pyrotechnic antenna deployment in PocketQube-class satellites: strain and thermal budgets for NiTi tapes and release actuators
- SQ-R-002
Materials engineering for PocketQube picosatellites: A scaling-based review and design guide
5. Engineering Course Modules (5)
- MODULE 01
The Physics of Miniature Scaling (L, L², L³)
Why shrinking a satellite from 10 cm (1U) to 5 cm (1P) changes surface-to-mass ratio, thermal time constant, and rotational inertia by orders of magnitude.
- MODULE 04
Orbital Thermal Balance & Solder Fatigue
Solar absorptivity (α), IR emissivity (ε), why 1P radiative thermal time constants are τ ≈ 56 minutes (vs. ~87–104 min for 1U/3U), and Engelmaier solder-joint fatigue.
- MODULE 08
Spacecraft Materials, Outgassing & Atomic Oxygen
Al 6061-T6 vs. 7075-T7351 stress-corrosion cracking, ECSS outgassing limits (TML < 1%, CVCM < 0.1%), and LEO atomic oxygen polymer erosion.
- MODULE 09
AIT, Vibration Qualification & TVAC Testing
Test-as-you-fly philosophy, sine sweep modal searches (>200 Hz), 14.1 G_rms GEVS random vibration, and thermal-vacuum bakeout/cycling.
- MODULE 11
CubeSat Design Specification (CDS Rev. 14.1) & PC/104 Bus Architecture
How 1U–16U CubeSats scale from 100×100×113.5 mm rails to 226.3×100×366 mm 6U dispensers, MIL-A-8625 Type III hard anodizing, separation switches, and the 90×96 mm PC/104 avionics stack.