Development status of AEOLDOS – A deorbit module for small satellites

•The petal-hub minimises stress and simplifies folding.•The angled frog-leg pattern maximises packing efficiency.•A cord-cutter of less than 1g is proposed. A prototype CubeSat module to deploy a gossamer aerobrake, using strain stored in tape-springs, at end-of-life is described. A novel hub geomet...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advances in space research 2014-07, Vol.54 (1), p.82-91
Main Authors: Harkness, Patrick, McRobb, Malcolm, Lützkendorf, Paul, Milligan, Ross, Feeney, Andrew, Clark, Craig
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerobrake
CubeSat
Deorbit
Petal-hub
SMA
Tape-spring
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Summary:•The petal-hub minimises stress and simplifies folding.•The angled frog-leg pattern maximises packing efficiency.•A cord-cutter of less than 1g is proposed. A prototype CubeSat module to deploy a gossamer aerobrake, using strain stored in tape-springs, at end-of-life is described. A novel hub geometry to reduce bending shock at end-of-deployment while simultaneously permitting radial, as opposed to tangential, deployment is proposed. The rpm of the hub is measured under various deployment conditions to verify that the system offers highly-repeatable performance, while high-speed photography is used to characterise the behaviour of the tape-spring during unspooling and contrast it to the behaviour of a traditional tangential-deployment system. Secondly the folding pattern of the membrane, which takes advantage of the symmetrical deployment offered by the petal hub, is developed and the unfolding mechanism is verified by numerical and experimental analysis. Finally, the release of the stored strain is considered and a novel burn-though device is designed and prototyped to meet this requirement.
ISSN:0273-1177
1879-1948
DOI:10.1016/j.asr.2014.03.022