Thermal environment analysis for TianQin

Abstract TianQin is a proposed space-borne gravitational wave observatory in high geocentric orbits, exposed to radiating heat sources in space. Due to the stringent thermal stability requirements from the key payloads, the analysis of space thermal environment is of great importance. This paper studies the incident thermal radiation onto the TianQin satellites from the Sun–Earth–Moon system. The solar constant fluctuation (SCF) and the Earth’s land-type features, based on the meteorological data, are considered, and an analytic function of lunar surface temperature is used. The analysis includes the solar radiation, the infrared radiation, and the albedo. The results are discussed in both time and frequency domains. The spectral analysis indicates that in the target frequency band of 0.1 mHz–1 Hz, the SCF plays a dominant role, and that the associated incident thermal disturbance is ∼5 W m −2 Hz −1/2 for TianQin, at the same level of the LISA in heliocentric orbits. In addition, the power spectra of the Earth’s and Moon’s heating fluctuation are given, both order-of-magnitude weaker than that of the solar radiation. The results may contribute to the thermal design and the noise analysis for TianQin.