Nuwatts Engineering Suite
Orbital Thermal Economics Simulator
Interactive trade-study tool for spacecraft and orbital compute thermal architectures. Explore how payload power, orbit, radiator temperature, and thermal architecture affect radiator area, thermal subsystem mass, and parasitic power.
Additional payload power enabled
4.9 kW
Thermal overhead reduction
Estimated launch cost savings
$3.90M
Assumes $10,000/kg
Estimated solar array mass reduction
32.7 kg
Assumes 150 W/kg
Representative radiator flux
0.34 kW/m²
Screening estimate, not mission analysis
System Architecture View
Visual screening model: payload heat moves through the thermal transport layer to the spacecraft heat rejection system.
Compute / payload load
50 kW
Parasitic overhead
0.1 kW
Radiator area
145.4 m²
Scenario Comparison
Investor Readout
At 50 kW of payload load, this scenario estimates 4.9 kW of additional payload power enabled and approximately 390.4 kg of potential thermal-system mass reduction.
The avoided parasitic load is equivalent to approximately 42,924 kWh/year of continuous electrical allocation that could instead support payload, communications, or compute operations.
Assumption Notes
This is a preliminary screening model. Radiator area is estimated using Stefan-Boltzmann scaling with a simple orbit derating factor. It is not a spacecraft thermal design tool and should be validated against mission-specific thermal analysis.
Launch cost savings assume $10,000/kg. Solar array mass reduction assumes 150 W/kg. Both are placeholders for early trade-study discussion.