The thermal modeling of small satellites (up to 100 kg) is crucial for predicting and managing their operation, and may present significant differences when compared to the thermal modeling carried out in relation to larger spacecraft. In this article, the modeling of their solar panels is underlined as one of these differences. The efficiency of spacecraft solar panels is affected by three main variables: the sun's irradiance, the cells’ temperatures, and the operating voltage. Unlike the most common approach, which only takes into account the first two variables and decouples the thermal problem from the electrical one, the coupled thermo-electric problem of the solar panel efficiency as a whole is considered in this article. Using the UPMSat-2 mission as an example, the importance of considering the operating voltage in the thermal analysis of a mission is proven in the present article (for the prediction of temperature and generated power). A simple but accurate I–V (Current–Voltage) curve model to calculate panel efficiency is proposed for modeling the solar panels performance, this method being easily implemented in ESATAN ^© .

中文翻译：

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小型卫星太阳能电池板的热电建模

小型卫星（重达 100 公斤）的热建模对于预测和管理其运行至关重要，并且与针对较大航天器进行的热建模相比可能存在显着差异。在本文中，他们的太阳能电池板的建模被强调为这些差异之一。航天器太阳能电池板的效率受三个主要变量的影响：太阳的辐照度、电池的温度和工作电压。与仅考虑前两个变量并将热问题与电气问题分离的最常见方法不同，本文将太阳能电池板效率的耦合热电问题作为一个整体考虑。以 UPMSat-2 任务为例，本文证明了在任务热分析中考虑工作电压的重要性（用于预测温度和发电量）。一个简单但准确的I-V提出了计算电池板效率的（电流-电压）曲线模型来模拟太阳能电池板的性能，这种方法很容易在 ESATAN ^{© 中}实现 。