Thermal analogies to Kepler's laws and their application to orbital heat transfer calculations

Integral expressions of radiant transfer in Keplerian orbits are developed in which quantities of heat are represented by areas swept over by thermal radii (presently introduced). The integrals are shown to be analogous in form to the solutions provided by Kepler's laws in orbital mechanics, when the radiation field is concentric with the gravitational field and possesses spherical symmetry. The more general case involving aspherical radiation fields and multiple heat sources is treated by graphical integration, using polar diagrams. Applications pertaining to the solar system and to the thermal balance of a conceptual Venus Radar Mapper Spacecraft are discussed.