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Non-Explosive Actuator Simulator, Bryan Costanza

Aerospace Engineering

The CubeSat group at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo discovered the need for a new piece of ground test equipment. Previous testing of the non-explosive actuator has been very expensive and is not repeatable; two undesirable traits. The analysis of the fuse as well as the design and test of the simulator concept and final article is discussed. The simulator has already seen real use and its entire build and operation cost is much less than the cost of one test of the actual hardware. Performance of the simulator based on burn time and reset time is acceptable …