Spacecraft Wall Thermal-Conduction Network (2D)

A 2D companion to the 3D eclipse thermal-cycling simulator, built from an independent, higher-fidelity model: instead of one lumped spacecraft temperature, the wall is a four-node thermal network — outer skin, MLI insulation blanket, structural bus and internal electronics — each with its own heat capacity, connected to its neighbours by real thermal conductances and integrated as a coupled system of ODEs. The outer skin absorbs solar flux while sunlit and always radiates to space via the Stefan-Boltzmann law; the electronics node dissipates a constant internal power that must conduct back out through the same chain. Orbit altitude drives the same eclipse cycling as the 3D sim through an exact orbital-period and shadow calculation, but here you can watch heat actually diffuse layer by layer — see how a well-insulated MLI blanket lets the skin swing through hundreds of degrees while the electronics barely notices, and how a poorly-insulated interface lets that swing straight through to the payload.