Abstract
In the present work, a deployable solar panel based on a burn wire triggering holding and release mechanism was developed for use of 6 U CubeSat. The holding and release mechanism was designed based on a nichrome burn wire cutting method widely used for CubeSat applications. However, it provides a high loading capability, reliable wire cutting, multiplane constraints, and handling simplicity during the tightening process of wire. A demonstration model of a printed circuit board-based solar panel stiffened by a high-pressure fiberglass-laminated G10 material was fabricated and tested to validate the effectiveness of the design and functionality of the mechanism under various test conditions. The structural safety of the solar panel combined with the mechanism in a launch vibration environment was verified through sine and random vibration tests at qualification level.
Highlights
A cube satellite (CubeSat) is a type of cube-shaped pico-class miniaturized satellite with a volume of 10 cm3 and a mass less than 1.33 kg with respect to a standard size of one unit (1 U) [1]
These results indicate that the stiffener design proposed in this study is advantageous to guarantee the structural safety of the solar cells in accordance with the reduction of panel deflection
The proposed solar panel module with stiffener design is advantageous to guarantee the structural safety of the solar cells in accordance with the reduction of panel deflection
Summary
A cube satellite (CubeSat) is a type of cube-shaped pico-class miniaturized satellite with a volume of 10 cm and a mass less than 1.33 kg with respect to a standard size of one unit (1 U) [1]. CubeSat vendors have recently produced various types of deployable solar panel that are mostly based on PCBs stiffened by aluminum or carbon fiber composite materials [9,10,11] These deployable panels require a holding and release mechanism (HRM) that provides adequate strength and stiffness to survive in the launch environment and release functions to make possible the deployment of these appendages in orbit. To enhance the capability of the conventional burn wire release method, Park et al [17] proposed a new version of a mechanism using a spring-loaded pogo pin developed for holding and releasing deployable solar panels for CubeSat applications. The test results demonstrated that the mechanism provides advantages of a high loading capability, reliability, multiplane constraints, and handling simplicity during the tightening process of the wire
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