Introduction
Over the course of working on our project for the last 5 months, we've gone through the various stages of the design process in engineering, from brainstorming concepts and sketching them, to creating 3D models and mockups, to creating our final prototype and spending many nights testing. We've learned several valuable lessons throughout the process of working on our project.
Lessons Learned
Conduct testing in a more faithful environment
To minimize convective cooling interfering with our testing process, we should strive to create a more faithful testing environment that simulates the conditions of space. Our primary choice to further our testing in an accurate setting is within a Vacuum Chamber, as it removes the condition of convective cooling.
Prioritize fitting within deployer
Due to the fact that CubeSats are launched into space via a separate entity called a 'CubeSat Deployer', our solution needs to meet the internal clearance of the deployer in order for it to be successfully implemented. Our solution barely fits inside the deployer, so a future step would be to increase that clearance and make sure it slides through freely.
Improve degree of contact between components
In order to preform a smoother and more successful heat transfer, we need to use thermal gap pads to minimize the amount of air pockets that exist through the use of thermal paste.
Include dimensioned drawings
To make our solution easier to view, we will include dimensioned drawings of our solution on our presentations. This will give the viewer a better scope of the scale of our solution.
Conclusion
With these lessons and feedback gained from the CDR, we can lay out a set of next steps to continue improving our solution and increase its effectiveness at cooling down the CubeSat.
