Spacecraft Deployables

Deployable applications Mechanisms This material developed by Rodger Farley for ENAE 691 (Satellite Design)

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Applications solar arrays sun shades solar sails antennas reflective concentrators (mesh and solid) radars optical metering structures (telescopes, interferometers), full and sparse apertures boom instruments: magnetometers, e-field measurements orbital dynamics (gravity gradient) momentum transfer (yo-yo despin , 2-point tethers) large assemblies (space stations , complex observatories)
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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Methods
rigid articulating booms articulating lattice masts coilable lattice masts telescoping booms wire booms (centrifugal stiffening) stacers foldable trusses pop-up trusses foldable panels inflatable structures foam structures free-flying formations 2-point tethered objects (orbit transfer, electricity generation) large rotating tethered formations
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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Deployment Devices (page 1)

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Deployment Devices (page 2)

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Deployment Devices (page 3)

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Deployment Devices (page 4)

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Deployment Devices (page 5)

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Deployment Devices (page 6)

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

RAE
RAE used STEM (structural tubular extendible mast) booms to create antennas as long as 229-m. The spacecrafts spin stabilization was reduced using yo-yo despin throw-away masses.
Lunar orbit 1973

Sunlight on one side created bowing. STEMS now use perforated holes to illuminate backsideinside, which can be coated black. Manufacturing capability limited, needs continuous processing technology for heat treatment, and perforations and coatings. Materials include BeCu and S.Steel.

Also known as the DeHavilland boom, developed in 1947

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

SEASAT / RADARSAT
Synthetic Aperture Radar on an extendible support structure 1mm flatness over 15m length

RADARSAT 1995

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Jumpseat, Trumpet large collectors

Wrap-rib unfurling parabolic mesh collector, 20 50 meters in diameter. Placed in 12hr Molniya orbits. The wrap-rib design has structural ribs wrapped around a central hub, then it unwraps at deployment. I imagine this is a very expensive way to do this.

SIGINT spy satellites from the 1970s, Trumpets replaced them in the 1990s

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

TDRS solar array, antenna

Older series TDRS. Single Access antennas on the TDRS. The Harris deployable mesh antennas are 4.9 meters (16ft) in diameter. Similar antenna was used on GALILEO (it failed to open properly)

The solar arrays used a kapton facesheet , with holes cut out in the back facesheet over each honeycomb cell for radiative Newer series TDRS using the taco shell cooling.
composite antenna
Manufacturing limitations for thin composite shells are the thermal gradients developed in the tooling during curing; this warps the shape into a potato chip.

TDRS-A

1983

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Solar Array Flight Experiment

Use of 34m nut-deployed coilable longeron lattice mast, 1987 Flexible z-fold solar array blanket

Precursor to the ISS arrays. 426 kg

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

SRTM
At 200 feet, the SRTM ADAM Mast is the longest man-made hardware to ever fly in space. In comparison, the Russian Space Station, Mir, was 108 feet in length, 98 feet in width, and 89 feet in height. The first U.S. space station, Skylab (1973-74), with the Apollo Command Module attached, measured 134 feet in length by 22 feet in diameter (90 feet with solar arrays open).
Articulated lattice mast, longest deployable truss to ever fly. Tip stable to 10mm

2 / 2000 Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

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MilStar
10000 lbs, Titan IV, geostationary Unfolding truss structure and 16m astromast

1994, 1995,1999 8.5 kw each wing, at 88kg. This works out to 97 watts per kg, standard technology is 30 watts per kg. S/A similar to SAFE, ISS

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Wirebooms and stacers

Spinning spacecraft with radial and axial booms
IMAGE 2000 FAST 1996

250m long wire booms, ! rpm

3m stacer booms

IMAGE was the longest wire boom to fly, " km in diameter. The wires were let out very slowly in stages. When short, the dog wags the tail, but as it gets longer, the tail starts to wag the dog. Its as if the wires are springs reaching out from infinity, giving the core s/c washing-machine cycle modes. One wire broke after ~4 months in orbit,

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due to debris impact.

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

TSS-1R
The tether reel mechanism controls the length, speed, and tension of the tether. The tether reel carries 22 km (~14 miles) of conducting tether. When the satellite is fully deployed, and the tether conductor is pulsed by electron accelerators, the TSS will be the longest and lowest frequency antenna ever placed in orbit. The tether broke at 20 km during the mission in 1996. There maybe ~ 100m2 of exposed tether, so the probability of debris impact is high. Think of it as 20km of single point Tether mission deployed from the top failures
of an ABLE fastmast

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Early inflatables
The Echo 2 spacecraft was a 41-m balloon of aluminum foil-mylar laminate. Echo 2 was designed as a rigidized passive communications spacecraft for testing propagation, tracking, and communication techniques. 1964 1969 Rigidization techniques today: Stretched aluminum foil, passes yield and removes wrinkles Glass transition going cold for neoprene coated Kevlar Water evaporation (corn-starch) Heat curing pre-preg gr/epoxy Glass transition for cured epoxy UNIVERSITY OF

Inflated to milli-psig. The aluminum foil is rigidized when all the wrinkles are stretched out, just past the yield point. One blew-up in the high-bay, knocked the pictures off the wall. Inflation techniques are compressed gas, and blowing agents as in an automobile airbag.

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Inflatable Antenna Experiment The Spartan spacecraft was rectangular in shape before the antenna inflation. The IAE occupied about half the volume and the support systems occupying the rest. The IAE is an inflatable antenna 50 feet (14 meters) in diameter mounted on three 92foot (28 meter) struts.

Recent inflatables

1996
The lenticular antenna did not inflate. Residual gas partially popped it out of the box before it could be kicked out to impart deployment momentum.

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Thuraya, INMARSAT-4
12-meter TRW AstroMesh reflector deployed in a manufacturing high bay. The reflector is one of the largest developed for satellite communications applications. When stowed, the reflector folds into a compact package only 10 percent of its full diameter.
INMARSAT-4 future

Thuraya 2000
Geo-tensoid antenna, but low frequency of single boom attachment is a problem.

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander

Lander mysteriously canceled UltraFlex is a fan-folded flexible solar array that deploys to form a tensioned ten-sided polygon. Photovoltaic cells are bonded directly to the flexible substrate, minimizing complexity and mass. The Mars Surveyor 2001 wings, each with a diameter of 2 meters, can deploy in a 1 g field and produce in excess of 105 watts per kilogram.

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Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

NGST deployable optics, deployable sun

TRW / Ball version 6.25m passively-cooled optics, re-scoped from 8m. Tennis-court sized sun shield

Lockheed-Martin version Space Deployables Principles of Space Systems Design

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