Micro-heat-sinks for space applications

During the space missions, the problems related to the thermal conditioning of devices, to the personnel comfort and to the thermo-mechanical stresses are known and important. Furthermore for a space mission certain priorities are stressed, such as the small dimension and the lightness of thermal equipments. Due to the presence of high temperature gradients, which straightforwardly implies significant heating/cooling powers, these characteristics are sometimes difficult to obtain. The decreasing of the satellites payloads in terms of mass and volume has brought to the necessity of a further development of traditional space technologies, such as heat pipes and radiators. A promising technology is the fabrication of micro-heat-sinks for active and passive thermal control systems suitable for the space environment, which is always an important workshop for future progresses. In fact, miniaturized heat sinks will have a terrestrial large industrial diffusion for electronic component cooling, in propulsion and in the power production for satellites, spacecrafts and airplanes, in various biomedical applications and in cloth conditioning in harsh environmental conditions. The present paper intends to introduce the reader to the standard space requirements, to present some new prospective and experimental results and to discuss the use of thermal MEMS for micro- and nano-satellites.