Wiwattananon, Peerawan

NASA NTRS2017

Steering Concept of a 2-Blade Heliogyro Solar Sail Spacecraft

Solar sails can be classified into two groups based on their method of stabilization: 1) truss supported, and 2) centrifugally (spin) supported. The truss configuration requires masts or booms to deploy, support, and rigidize the sails whereas the spin type uses the spacecraft’s centrifugal force to deploy and stabilize the sails. The truss-supported type sail has a scaling limitation because as the sail area gets larger, the sail is increasingly more difficult to make and stow: the masts and booms get heavier, occupying more volume, and have increased risk during deployment. This major disadvantage limits the size of the sail area. The spin type comes in two configurations: 1) spinning square/disk sail and 2) heliogyro sail. This spinning square/disk sail architecture suffers the same sail area limitation as the truss-supported sail.

Wiwattananon, Peerawan↗

NASA NTRS2015

Heliogyro-Configured Solar Sail Spacecraft

No abstract available

Wiwattananon, Peerawan↗

NASA NTRS2015

Performance Comparisons and Down Selection of Small Motors for Two-Blade Heliogyro Solar Sail 6U CubeSat

This report compiles a review of 130 commercial small scale motors (piezoelectric and electric motors) and almost 20 researched-type small scale piezoelectricmotors for potential use in a 2 blades Heliogyro Solar Sail 6U CubeSat. In this application, a motor and gearhead (drive system) will deploy a roll of solar sailthin film (2 um thick)accommodated in a 2U CubeSat (100 x 200 x 100 mm) housing. The application requirements are: space rated, output torque at fulldeployment of 0.8 Nm, reel speed of 3 rpm, drive system weight limited to 150 grams, diameter limited to 50 mm, and the length not to exceed 40 mm. The 50mm diameter limit was imposed as motors with larger diameters would likely weigh too much and use more space on the satellite wall. This would limit theamount of the payload. The motors performance are compared between small scale, volume within 3x102 cm3 (3x105 mm3), commercial electric DC motors,commercial piezoelectric motors, and researched-type (non-commercial) piezoelectric motors extracted from scientific and product literature. The comparisonssuggest that piezoelectric motors without a gearhead exhibit larger output torque with respect to their volume and weight and require less input power toproduce high torque. A commercially available electric motor plus a gearhead was chosen through a proposed selection process to meet the applications designrequirements.

Wiwattananon, Peerawan↗