How does the Hubble telescope cool down its computer system?

Answer 1

There are a number of interesting ways that all are in fact used. The most obvious solution is just on the fact that space is very very very cold already. The lack of oxygen or any other atmosphere would rule out convection.

The most interesting way I have heard of is using thermopiles to use the heat to create electricity. These work on the principle of thermocouples, which use a difference between a large heat source (the electronic componenets) and a cold source (outside the craft) to create electricity using special materials that cause electrons to move with a heat difference. Wikipedia should have how these work. As a side note. Thermopiles are just a large grouping of thermocouples.

Answer 2

Since all of the electronics sit in the vacuum of space there is but one method of getting rid of heat: conduction. Convection is non-existant (no air) and cooling by radiation is not effective (because the thing next to the computer board is probably another PC board with something even hotter on board).

All PC boards made for space flight take into account the fact that they must be cooled by conduction through the board, through the mounting bolts (lots of them), through the metal chassis of the computer board, through the metal baseplate (of the whole computer), through the hubble electronic bay metal bus (structure), and eventually to a special radiator that finally dumps the excess heat out into space.

If it is necessary, some boards may have electric heaters conducting heat to keep them from dropping below some minimum temperature (example: -20 degrees C). I do not believe that there are any computer pc boards on Hubble that do not generate enough wattage (heat) to keep themselves above the minimum temperature -- even when Hubble is on the 'dark' side of its orbit around the earth.

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Answer 3

It was my view that space was freezing and they didn't have a problem with heat. They had a problem with cold and needing heaters.