Hideyuki Yabe

NEW SPINNING DEPLOYMENT METHOD OF LARGE THIN MEMBRANES WITH TETHER CONTROL

In this paper, we propose one membrane deployment method: tether-controlled spinning deployment. Very large, thin and flexible membrane (sail) is packed and then is deployed in orbit. In the process of membrane deployment, we use controlled tethers to stably deploy the membrane. Some types of the system are proposed, and the characteristics and technical issues are briefly mentioned. Numerical simulation results using a distributed mass-tether network model show the potential advantage of the proposed method. An experimental set-up of the proposed deployment using the two-dimensional micro-gravity simulators developed at Tokyo Institute of Technology is introduced, and the result of preliminary deployment experiments with a thin membrane of 1m-sized is shown.

Tokyo Tech 1kg Pico-Satellite CUTE-I-Development, Launch & Operations

Abstract Tokyo Institute of Technology, Laboratory for Space Systems had developed a 1 kg pico-satellite CubeSat, CUTE-I, and it was successfully launched on June 30 2003 by a Eurockots rocket. CUTE-I is one of the first launched CubeSats and also the smallest civilian satellites in the world, which are able to make dual-directional communications with the ground stations. In this paper, the total design of CUTE-I flight model and operation results focused on its attitude analyses are explained.