Development of Deployable Aperture Concepts for CubeSats

This paper presents research on two applications of elastic strain energy deployable structures as small satellite apertures that package into the 10 x 10 x 10 cm CubeSat platform. Development of architectures for these small satellites presents new challenges for compact packaging and deployed precision. Two designs were conceptualized, one for a segmented radio frequency reflector that unfurls from a 10 cm packaged diameter to a 1.0 meter deployed diameter, and another for a mirror that unfolds from the CubeSat volume to a 30 cm diameter primary mirror for a telescope. The reflector design employs a unique pantograph-like perimeter pattern for interlocking the gores of the surface, and the mirror adopts a modified concertina fold pattern that minimizes packaging strains. Folding kinematics were studied for both concepts and a prototype of the reflector was fabricated to demonstrate packaging.

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