Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

A Systematic Study Into The Design And Utilization Of Burn Wire As A Means Of Tensioning And Releasing Spacecraft Mechanisms Through Applied Joule Heating, Chandler Dye

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The joule heating characteristics of Nichrome burn wires, often used as a thermal cutting device in mechanisms designed to fasten and release CubeSat deployables, are examined in the following thesis. Wires ranging from 0.125 inches to 2 inches long, and diameters of 30 Ga and 40 Ga, are investigated through analytical calculations and thermal simulations based on heat transfer due to joule heating, and through physical circuitry-based experiments. The temperature data is used to generate heating curves to predict the time it takes for Nichrome wires to fail under varying testing parameters. This research aims to catalog a series of …

Development Of Mirror Flexures For Use In The Muvi Instrument, Colin W. Harrop

Master's Theses

The Miniaturized Ultraviolet Imager (MUVI), is a compact wide field UV imaging instrument in development at UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. MUVI is designed to fit in a 2U CubeSat form factor and provide wide field, high resolution images of the ionosphere at far ultraviolet wavelengths. This thesis details the design and analyses of MUVI’s deployable cover mirror mounting flexures. Three different flexure geometries were evaluated, an optimal candidate was determined based on a number of criteria including isolation of vibration and stress to the mirrors, manufacturability and cost. The design of the flexure …

Compact Electrospray Propulsion Systems For Small Form-Factor Satellites: An Orbital Performance Survey & Platform Design, Alberto Meza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Over the past decades, small form-factor satellites such as CubeSats have remained as one of the most accessible platforms to reach space for universities, research institutions, private and governmental entities to perform a wide range of missions. This paper presents a survey into the design and implementation of an electrospray rail thruster, to be integrated to the CubeSat platform. The design investigated features propellant tanks for each individual thruster embedded inside the rail of a standard 1U CubeSat. The capabilities of utilizing the electrospray thruster as an attitude & determination control system was also investigated in which, a pointing accuracy …

Failure Mode, Effects And Criticality Analysis Of A Very Low Earth Orbit Cubesat Mission, Robb Christopher Borowicz

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

When space programs launch vehicles into orbit, multiple failures could arise throughout the mission and corrective actions are often not an option. Applying reliability engineering approaches during the design phase focuses on analyzing risk by anticipating potential failures and mitigating uncertainties in the design. Old Dominion University, in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology designed and developed a 3U CubeSat mission to validate on-orbit, three space technology payloads. Mission SeaLion will fly as a secondary payload on stage two of Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket and will be deployed in a very …

Low-Cost Reaction Wheel Design For Cubesat Applications, Nicholas J. Bonafede Jr.

Master's Theses

As science instruments on CubeSats become more sensitive to the attitude of the spacecraft, better methods must be employed to provide the accuracy needed to complete the planned mission. While systems that provide the accuracy required are available commercially, these solutions are not cost-effective, do not allow the design to be tailored to a specific mission, and most importantly, do not give students hand-on experience with attitude control actuators. This thesis documents the design, modeling, and simulation of a low-cost, student-fabricated, reaction wheel system for use in 3U CubeSat satellites. The entire design process for the development of this reaction …

Redesign Of Cubesat For Beam Charging, Kuba Preis

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This paper is intended to be a study in the applications of the design freedom granted by additive manufacture in the design of a 1U CubeSat frame. The main loads experienced by a CubeSat are structural (during launch) and thermal (solar radiation). Beam charging is an emerging technology which involves charging a CubeSat using a laser beam. In this paper, a CubeSat frame was redesigned to account for the structural loads induced during launch and the thermal loads induced when beam charging. The thermal, weight, design, and structural requirements for a new CubeSat design were derived. The 1U CubeSat frame …

Development And Environmental Testing Of A Single-Axis Printer Inside A 1u Cubesat For On-Orbit Servicing Repairs In Low Earth Orbit, Perla Rocio Perez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As additive manufacturing is becoming an established technology in space, new emerging strategies improve the efficiency of the printing processes. Orbital Factory 2 (OF-2) is a small satellite-or CubeSat-developed at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) which launched to space on November 2019. In January 2020, it will be released in low earth orbit (LEO). OF-2 is a 1U (10x10x10cm) CubeSat that carries a one-axis printer experiment as its primary payload. This printer was developed and tested in-house. The experiment focuses on printing electrically conductive ink on a printing circuit board that verifies the conductivity on the trace …

Active Permanent Magnet Attitude Control For Cubesats Using Mu-Metal Shielding, Maxwell Martin

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cube-Satellites (CubeSats) are nanosatellites composed of cube shaped units, each nominally 10cm to a side and around 1kg in mass. Due to their inherent size and weight limitations, it is often impractical to use conventional attitude, or rotational, control methods such as thrusters on these small satellites. Several methods, including magnetorquer rods and small reaction wheels, are often used instead of traditional methods to work around the size and weight limitations. As a new alternative to these methods, a permanent magnet mounted on a rotatable shaft could be used to achieve attitude control. In much the same way that a …

A Low Cost Inflatable Cubesat Drag Brake Utilizing Sublimation, Adam Charles Horn

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The United Nations Inter-Agency Debris Coordination Committee has adopted a 25-year post-mission lifetime requirement for any satellite orbiting below 2000 km in order to mitigate the growing orbital debris threat. Low-cost CubeSats have become important satellite platforms with startling capabilities, but this guideline restricts them to altitudes below 600 km because they remain in orbit too long. In order to enable CubeSat deployments at higher release altitudes, a low-cost, ultra-reliable deorbit device is needed.

This thesis reports on efforts to develop a deployable and passively inflatable drag brake that can deorbit from higher orbital altitudes, thereby complying with the 25-year …

Deployable Antenna For Cubesat, Mackenzie Thomas Lennon, Caleb Andrew Barber, David Matthew Galves

Mechanical Engineering

This project is a proof-of-concept ground model of a large deployable antenna designed for the small space requirements of CubeSats. This small deployment module is designed to fit a 2 m by 1 m reflective antenna inside a storage volume of with the dimensions 20 cm by 20 cm x 40 cm. The reflector will be deployed to a parabolic shape with the goal of modeling the reflector necessary for high frequency communication. Because this module is designed as a proof-of-concept for the deployable parabolic reflector specifically, no electrical components will be incorporated and will just focus on the deployment …

Tesseract, Edgar Uribe, Vanessa Faune

Mechanical Engineering

PolySat is a student-run, Cal Poly research program in which students develop small satellites, known as CubeSats, to be sent into space. Since the start of the program in 2000, PolySat has developed eight 10cm x 10cm x10cm CubeSats. Recently, the team has developed two satellites of double, and triple, that size for NASA-KSC & AI-Solutions and the National Science Foundation. The recent volumetric expansion has been driven by high demand for further satellite functionality, which necessitates large power generation capabilities. To remain competitive in the growing CubeSat industry, PolySat must develop a platform that can provide enough power to …

Compact Deployable Antenna For Cubesat Units, Sarah Bolton, Dominic Doty, Peter Rivera

Mechanical Engineering

CubeSats are an appealing platform for space exploration due to their low build and launch costs. Due to their small size, communication rates are often severely limited, preventing missions beyond low earth orbit. A low cost, high gain, high frequency antenna is needed to extend the capabilities of CubeSats.

The goal of the project was to design and build an axisymmetric parabolic antenna that could be deployed from a 10cm x 10cm x 15cm (1.5U) volume and operate at Ka band frequencies. The design selected consisted of an expanding perimeter truss supporting a tensioned mesh reflector. The perimeter truss was …