Development of Nano-Satellite OrigamiSat-1with Highly Functional Deployable Membrane

By Hiroki NAKANISHI 1),Hiraku SAKAMOTO1), Hiroshi FURUYA1), Masahiko YAMAZAKI 2), Yasuyuki MIYAZAKI 2),

Akihito WATANABE3), Kazuki WATANABE4), Ayako TORISAKA-KAYABA 5), and Mitsushige ODA1)

1)Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan2)Nihon University, Chiba, Japan

3)Sakase Adtech, Co., Ltd., Fukui, Japan4)WEL Research Co., Ltd., Chiba, Japan

5)Tokyo Metropolitan University

This paper discusses a design of a 3U CubeSat, which will demonstrate an advanced membrane space structure in orbit. The

objective of the CubeSat development is the establishment of research/development hub which enables the realization of innovative

space deployable structures. The 3U CubeSat is designed as a pilot project to achieve the objective. This paper describes the CubeSat

missions derived from the bigger development objective, and explains the system design of the CubeSat.

Key Words: Gossamer Structures, Small Satellites, Nano Satellites, CFRP Boom

1. Introduction

Advanced lightweight space structures, especially membranestructures, have been widely studied for enabling future spaceapplications. Applications that will benefit from such structuresincludes deorbiting system, solar array, reflectors, sun shield,phased array antenna, solar sail, aerobrake/aerocapture system,and occulter. However, it is difficult to predict deploymentdynamics and deployed shapes of space membrane structuresthrough ground tests. This is because the effects of gravity andatmosphere have significant impact on the behavior of mem-brane structures on the ground. For this reason, numerical struc-tural analyses were intensively used during the development ofthe world-first solar sail demonstrator IKAROS.1) But the ex-periments to evaluate the accuracy of the numerical analysesare also difficult to conduct, because even the scale models formembrane space structures are significantly influenced by grav-ity and atmosphere.

A possible approach to overcome the aforementioned prob-lem is the use of CubeSats. Recently various CubeSat compo-nents are available as commercial products; thus, the effort re-quired for CubeSat development has been significantly reduced.In addition, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) of-fers launching opportunities for small satellites using Epsilonrockets and using International Space Station. It is significantlyuseful to obtain a capability to conduct experiments of spacedeployable structures in space using CubeSats, and to establisha community that supports such research and development ac-tivities.

To this end, the present authors have started the establishmentof a research/development hub for space deployable structuresthrough developing an actual 3U CubeSat as a pilot project.In this paper, the CubeSat design, which aims at contribut-ing to the establishment of research/development hub, is dis-cussed. Section 2 defines the CubeSat’s missions, and Section3 describes the system design to implement the missions. ThisCubeSat, named OrigamiSat-1, has been selected by JAXA to

be launched in FY2018 using Epsilon rocket.

2. Objective of CubeSat Development

In order to establish a research and development hub forspace deployable structures, the present authors focus on thefollowing three key activities.

(F1) Development of space demonstration scheme for ad-vanced space deployable structures

(F2) Development of design and verification methodologiesfor space deployable structures through the synthesis ofexperiments and numerical analyses

(F3) Establishment of a community for research and develop-ment of space deployable structures where knowledge re-tention is possible over different generations

These activities for establishing research/development hub isnow called ORIGAMI (ORganizatIon of research Group on Ad-vanced deployable Membrane structures for Innovative spacescience) project. And as the first pilot space demonstrationsatellite, the development of a 3U CubeSat, OrigamiSat-1, hasbeen started. The objective of OrigamiSat-1 is to accomplishthe following three missions.

(M1) Membrane deployment mission: To contribute to therealization of future applications, an highly functionalmembrane structure is deployed, and its deployment be-havior and deployed shapes are measured in orbit.

(M2) Space-demonstration scheme development mission: Toobtain space-demonstration scheme for researchers ofspace deployable structures, commercially availablecomponents are used or developed.

(M3) Amateur radio mission: To enhance radio communi-cation skills, 5.84GHz high-speed transmission fromspace2) is used.

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Fig. 1. 3U CubeSat, OrigamiSat-1.

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Fig. 2. Components of OrigamiSat-1.

Table 1. Specifications of OrigamiSat-1.

Size Approx. 100×100×340 mmMass Approx. 4.0 kgLaunch By Epsilon rocket in FY2018

3. CubeSat Design

In order to accomplish the three missions, a preliminary de-sign of OrigamiSat-1 has been considered. Figure 1 shows anon-orbit image of OrigamiSat-1. Table 1 shows basic specifica-tions of the CubeSat.

Figure 2 shows the on-board components and Fig. 3 showsthe system diagram of OrigamiSat-1. The system consists offour major subsystems: (i) bus, (ii) membrane deployment sys-tem, (iii) extendable camera system, and (iv) ground station.For the bus, most components are composed of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. This design aims at facilitatingthe future space demonstration of advanced space deployablestructures by university/company researchers.

The membrane deployment system deploys a membrane-boom integrated structure, proposed by the present authors.3)

Its membrane folding pattern, called rotationally skew fold-ing,4) enables the attachment of thin-film devices on the mem-brane, such as thin-film solar cells and thin SMA antennas. Theprototype of the membrane deployment system of OrigamiSat-1is shown in Fig. 4. The deployment experiment on the ground isshown in Fig. 6. In this experiment, the thin devices are not at-tached on the membrane yet. The tips of the deployable boomsare suspended from the ceiling for gravity compensation.

The deployable camera system, illustrated in Fig. 2, takespictures of the deployed membrane on orbit. It has approxi-mately 1m-length deployable mast, and the camera is installedon the tip of the deployable mast.

Finally, Fig 5 shows the mission sequence. (1) the CubeSatis released from a rocket, (2) the deployable antennas are de-ployed, (3) the extensible mast is extended, and finally (4) thehighly functional membrane is deployed.

4. Summary

The missions of the 3U CubeSat OrigamiSat-1 are selectedin order to contribute to the establishment of research and de-velopment hub for advanced space deployable structures. Thesystem design of OrigamiSat-1 is described.

Acknowledgments

The work described in this paper has been supported by Min-istry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology inJapan. In addition, the development of OrigamiSat-1 is sup-ported by the solar sail working group in ISAS/JAXA. The au-thors appreciate the support.

References

1) Shirasawa, Y., Mori, O., Miyazaki, Y., Sakamoto, H., Hasome, M.,Okuizumi, N., Sawada, H., Furuya, H., Matsunaga, S., and Natori,M. C., “Analysis of Membrane Dynamics Using Multi-Particle Modelfor Solar Sail Demonstrator “IKAROS”,” AIAA Paper 2011-1890,2011.

2) Tanaka, T., Kawamura, Y., and Tanaka, T., “Development and op-erations of nano-satellite FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA),”Acta Astronautica,Vol. 107, 2015, pp. 112–129.

3) Furuya, H., Satou, Y., Sakamoto, H., Takai, M., Okuizumi, N., Natori,M. C., Torisaka, A., Yokomatsu, T., Kurashige, H., and Watanabe, A.,“Deployment Experiments of Wrapping Fold Boom-Membrane Inte-grated Space Structures for De-Orbiting Satellites,”30th InternationalSymposium on Space Technology and Science, No. 2015-c-45, Kobe,Hyogo, Japan, July 2015.

4) Furuya, H., Inoue, Y., and Masuoka, T., “Deployment Characteristicsof Rotationally Skew Fold Membrane for Spinning Solar Sail,” AIAA

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Fig. 4. Prototype of highly functional deployable membrane.

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Fig. 5. Mission sequence of OrigamiSat-1.

Fig. 6. Deployment test of deployable membrane on ground.