MC2 is in full sun and running warm

MCubed-2 temperatures have been growing hotter.  Internal temperatures are approaching 40C.  We have reduced downlinks and payload operations to prevent over heating.  The plot below explains why.

Illumination schedule for MCubed-2
The illumination schedule for MCubed-2 using the Illum software from Mike Rupprecht.

MCubed-2 is in a season of full sun as the plot above shows.  It was generated the Illum Software from Mike Rupprecht.  We’ll start to see eclipse in a couple days, and in a few weeks, we will have good eclipses.  This highlights an ironic tradeoff: when are fully illuminated and generating the most power, we have to reduce operations to stay cool.  Thermal management is thus an extremely important part of satellite design.

This likely also explains the COVE execution error that is seen in the beacon data.  The flight computer auto halted a COVE execution when temperatures elevated above 40C.  As the satellite starts to cool down when eclipse returns, we will be able to run experiments without worry of temperature.