Overview of Thermal Test and Practice in Developing Satellite

Units developed for a real satellite should pass space environmental tests and launch environment tests. Thermal Vacuum Test, one of the space environmental test, simulates extreme thermal environment encountered in on-orbit operation of satellite. Many payloads which adapt non-traditional, brand-new technology are developed by developers who is not familiar to space engineering field. There might be some possibility of mistakes which result in serious problem due to lack of experience, especially from planning to performing thermal vacuum test. In this paper, brief overview of thermal environmental test related to a satellite development is summarized in order to prepare and perform the thermal test.