Thermal control study of the 2D gimbal servo mechanism of GEO satellite-borne laser communication terminal

The 2D gimbal servo mechanism of the satellite-borne laser communication terminal, which is a pointing-regulating mechanism with high precision, has a strict requirement of temperature level and uniformity at the working time. The acute change of the orbital heat flux is the external factor that induces the temperature volatility. The thermal control scheme of the 2D gimbal servo mechanism of the GEO satellite-borne gimbal-type laser communication terminal was proposed. In the scheme, the structure design and material selection based on the structural/electrical/thermal concurrent design, active tracking temperature control, thermal dissipation and insulation design were all used to realize the precise control of the stability and uniformity of the temperature field of the space 2D gimbal servo mechanism with large scale and high precision. Meanwhile, the scheme was verified by both the thermal simulation and experiment test. The results show that the temperature range of the servo mechanism's core component is from 22.3℃ to 34.6℃ and its temperature difference is less than 4℃ in the whole lifetime on the working orbit.