1) Convection, i.e.: the mixing of bits of 'hot' material and 'cold' material such as the material itself mixes through. Think blowing an air conditioner in a room.
2) Conduction, i.e.: the flow of heat energy through matter that is touching. The matter itself doesn't mix, but the heat energy can transfer. Think putting your hand on a hot plate.
3) Radiation, i.e.: the energy turning into electromagnetic radiation and beaming through the vacuum of space until it strikes something. Think sunlight.
1 and 2 are out, as there's no matter (air, etc.) around the ISS for it to convect or conduct with. Thus, all heat must be radiated. The above list ranks them in order of efficiency, so heat rejection is in fact very difficult.
mmh... interesting problem. I wonder if satelites could just put the heat in some not-more-needed stuff, gas or something and simply shoot or launch this stuff to the space.
Yes I'm inventing the "farting satellite" :-).
Another possibility could be to put "hair" (short metallic spikes) about lets say the 50% of the surfaces of the satellite. Several possible goals could be achieved with this idea, creating lots of dynamic shadows around the surface, protecting the real surface from small impacts (some bend spikes is better that having a hole in your roof, and maybe even to provide support to the ocassional human intervention out (you could substitute the spikes by a matrix of handles easy to grasp).
Just some crazy ideas. If you need to loose heat look at how birds and mammals do this task with movile hairs and feathers.
> I wonder if satelites could just put the heat in some not-more-needed stuff, gas or something and simply shoot or launch this stuff to the space.
The astronauts actually did that on the moon! Their spacesuits used sublimation of water ice for cooling.
Your limitation is coolant mass. The useful life of satellites is often linked to the amount of propellant they have left; you'd have the same problem with your proposed cooling system.
Wow, you need ice to take a walk in the cold moon? this is one of those smart tricks that we, common people, never, ever will suspect :-)
okay so... so the goal is to be able to cool quickly our station in case of emergency. We had running out of coolant gasses and so and we have "unlimited" access to the materials in the space: "nothing" and sun radiation.
I wonder if there is a way to reduce the vibration of heated atoms with electricity, magnetic fields or whatever electronics can do?
1) Convection, i.e.: the mixing of bits of 'hot' material and 'cold' material such as the material itself mixes through. Think blowing an air conditioner in a room.
2) Conduction, i.e.: the flow of heat energy through matter that is touching. The matter itself doesn't mix, but the heat energy can transfer. Think putting your hand on a hot plate.
3) Radiation, i.e.: the energy turning into electromagnetic radiation and beaming through the vacuum of space until it strikes something. Think sunlight.
1 and 2 are out, as there's no matter (air, etc.) around the ISS for it to convect or conduct with. Thus, all heat must be radiated. The above list ranks them in order of efficiency, so heat rejection is in fact very difficult.