Satellite Solar Panel Deployment

This paper presents an innovative method to control the rotational speed of a satellite solar panel during its deployment phase.

Satellite solar panel deployment.

The results of the deployment system testing are discussed including the design and realization of the test bed the mechanical stress given to the solar cells by the deployment accelerations and the overall system performance. Paris the intelsat is 19 satellite launched may 31 has failed to deploy one of its two solar arrays intelsat announced late june 1 an anomaly that has affected other space systems loral. This article presents the modeling simulation and assessment of deployment and locking operations of satellite flexible solar panel using ansys and adams software. Materials and methods the satellite is modeled by considering the main body and two yokes which connect the main body and two adjacent panels as rigid bodies and solar panels are modeled as flexible bodies.

A brushed dc motor has been utilized in the passive spring driven deployment mechanism to reduce the deployment speed. To deploy the solar panels. Solar array panels of a satellite must be locked at an intended position in order to perform its mission successfully as the electric power source of a satellite. The solar panel deployment mechanism includes two parts see fig.

Excess power charges the satellite s battery which is used when the gpm core isn t in direct sunlight. 1 an active hinge which provides the kinetic energy of deployment by two redundant torsional springs 2 a passive hinge which controls the rotational speed by means of a brushed dc motor and undergoes locking in the intended position when the solar panel deployment phase finishes. Unlike any discernible solar panel deployment mechanism with a flight history spacex s starlink engineers seem to have taken a style of deployment used successfully on the international space. Deployment test of one of the gpm core satellite s solar wings on thursday june 6 2013.