>On spacecraft, heatsinks work *only* by radiation. The
>fins are black and usually angled at least 60 degrees
>relative to each other.

Umm 'taint necessarily so :)

My previous project was involvement with a power supply for an earth
resources satellite. The major heat radiating point is open to space (as in
not covered by those gold coloured blankets) to get the radiation for
getting rid of the heat, and is covered with a highly reflective silver
(actual metal not known) foil to minimise heat absorption from the sun.

Even inside the assembly where I had LM117 type regulators mounted the
aluminium was alodised, resulting in that gold/brass colour mentioned
previously, rather than black anodised.

The rest of the outer surface of the assembly was black anodised though.
However this is not exposed in a manner allowing it to radiate heat to
space.

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