Shadowing Studies of External Sites on The International Space Station

External sites on the International Space Station (ISS) will be used to test different technologies and to run scientific experiments. The design of some such experiments is highly dependent on environmental heat fluxes and direct sun exposure. The structure of the ISS is large enough and the orbit varied enough that all external locations are likely to be shadowed at one time or another by it. This shadowing study attempts to quantify this effect by determining the reduction in environmental heat flux as a consequence of said shadowing. As an example, our study centered on the Express Pallets (ExPa) located on the S-3 truss. Comparisons with different benchmarks were made to verify the model. Results indicate a non-trivial shadowing effect of the structure on these external sites.