Comment by jcattle
2 days ago
Of course you can. You can use everything as a radiator. Unless you have something which is literally 0 Kelvin everything radiates.
See here for all the great ways of getting rid of thermal energy in space: https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/sst-soa/thermal-cont...
You can use everything as a radiator, but you can't use everything as a radiator sufficiently efficient to cool hot chips to safe operating temperature, particularly not if that thing is a thin panel intentionally oriented to capture the sun's rays to convert them to energy. Sure, you can absolutely build a radiator in the shade of the panels (it's the most logical place), but it's going to involve extra mass.
You also want to orient those radiators at 90 degrees to the power panels, so that they don't send 50% of their radiation right back to the power panels.
You can rivet people onto the outside of the ISS to radiate heat, too, but it may be detrimental to the overall system.