Preliminary thermal design and analysis of lunar lander for night survival

Abstract

A lunar lander is exposed to extreme lunar thermal environments with a nighttime of 14.75 earth days. Thus, a proper thermal design is an important task to guarantee a successful lunar mission. This paper describes a preliminary thermal design and analysis results of a lunar lander to ensure its survivability during lunar night. The effectiveness of the thermal designs of a lunar lander with various thermal hardwares was numerically investigated according to the landing candidate areas to determine which design is the most feasible for night survival. In addition, we analyzed the mechanical safety of the solder joint of electronic components in accordance with the operating temperature range, because it is an important factor for reducing the system power budget during night survival.