Indirect Solar Loading of Waste Heat Radiators

Waste heat from space based power systems must ultimately be radiated away into space. The local topology around the radiators must be considered from two stand-points: the scattering of sunlight onto the surfaces of the radiator and the heat load that the radiator may put on near-by components of the system. A view factor code (SNAP) developed at Los Alamos allows the computation of the steady-state radiation environment for complex 3-D geometries. An example of the code's utility is given. 4 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.