Mint is good for gaming and simple for most people but there are other distros which run newer versions of software or/and has more access to software. I generally use distros based on arch, such as EndeavourOS with the caveat that they sometimes break.

Yeah it is a proven tech but requires quite a lot of space/weight and usually when satellites get the most energy from solar panels they also “generate” the most heat.

Energy is the least of their concerns, getting rid of the heat is a much bigger problem.