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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1972

Evaluation of spacecraft boom deployment dynamics by combined analysis and testing.

Discussion of the deployment of multiple hinged booms from the IMP-I satellite, which is a good example of the use of the combined analysis and testing approach for preflight system reliability evaluation. The procedures used for test and evaluation of the booms are described, and problems encountered and results achieved are considered. Analytical methods, using a digital computer program, and functional test operation with the best possible environmental simulation, were both applied to the problem and comparisons between analytical and test results were made to evaluate their validity and to reveal the effects of errors and imperfections. There is a synergistic advantage in the combined approach in that mutual comparison gives better evaluation of both analysis and test results than independent study of either. An appendix presents some results of a later and as yet incomplete test program involving the IMP-H satellite.

Lang, W. E.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Development of a Strain Energy Deployable Boom for the Space Technology 5 Mission

The Space Technology 5 (ST5) mission is one of a series of technology demonstration missions for the New Millennium Program. This mission will fly three fully functional 25 kilogram micro class spacecraft in formation through the Earth s magnetosphere; the primary science instrument is a very sensitive magnetometer. The constraints of a 25 kg "Micosat" resulted in a spin stabilized, octagonal spacecraft that is 30 cm tall by 50 cm diameter and has state of the art solar cells on all eight sides. A non-magnetic boom was needed to place the magnetometer as far from the spacecraft and its residual magnetic fields as possible. The ST-5 spacecraft is designed to be spun up and released from its deployer with the boom and magnetometer stowed for later release. The deployer is the topic of another paper, This paper describes the development efforts and resulting self-deploying magnetometer boom.

Meyers, Stew↗
NASA NTRS2004

Development of a Strain Energy Deployable Boom for the Space Technology 5 Mission

The Space Technology 5 (ST5) mission is one of a series of technology demonstration missions for the New Millennium Program. This mission will fly three fully functional 25-kilogram micro-class spacecraft in formation through the Earth's magnetosphere; the primary science instrument is a very sensitive magnetometer. The constraints of a 25-kg Micosat resulted in a spin stabilized, octagonal spacecraft that is 30 cm tall by 50 cm diameter and has state-of-the-art solar cells on all eight sides. A non-magnetic boom was needed to place the magnetometer as far from the spacecraft and its residual magnetic fields as possible. The ST-5 spacecraft is designed to be spun up and released from its deployer with the boom and magnetometer stowed for later release. The deployer is the topic of another paper. This paper describes the development efforts and resulting self-deploying magnetometer boom.

Meyers, Stew↗
NASA NTRS2015

Testing the Deployment Repeatability of a Precision Deployable Boom Prototype for the Proposed SWOT Karin Instrument

NASA's proposed Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, scheduled to launch in 2020, would provide critical information about Earth's oceans, ocean circulation, fresh water storage, and river discharge. The mission concept calls for a dual-antenna Ka-band radar interferometer instrument, known as KaRIn, that would map the height of water globally along two 50 km wide swaths. The KaRIn antennas, which would be separated by 10 meters on either side of the spacecraft, would need to be precisely deployable in order to meet demanding pointing requirements. Consequently, an effort was undertaken to design build and prototype a precision deployable Mast for the KaRIn instrument. Each mast was 4.5-m long with a required dilitation stability of 2.5 microns over 3 minutes. It required a minimum first mode of 7 Hz. Deployment repeatability was less than +/- 7 arcsec in all three rotation directions. Overall mass could not exceed 41.5 Kg including any actuators and thermal blanketing. This set of requirements meant the boom had to be three times lighter and two orders of magnitude more precise than the existing state of the art for deployable booms.

boom↗
NASA NTRS1990

Relatchable launch restraint mechanism for deployable booms

A new Relatchable Launch Mechanism was developed which enables a deployable system to be restrained and released repeatedly rather than the normal one shot release systems of the past. The deployable systems are of the self extending type which rely on a lanyard attached to a drive motor to control the deployment and retraction. The Relatch Mechanism uses the existing drive motor to also actuate the latch. The design and kinematics of the Relatch Mechanism as used on two flight programs are described.

Warden, Robert M.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The X-beam as a deployable boom for the space station

Extension of antennas and thrust modules from the primary structure of the space station will require deployable beams of high stiffness and strength, as well as low mass and package volume. A square boom cross section is desirable for interface reasons. These requirements and others are satisfied by the X-beam. The X-beam folds by simple geometry, using single-degree-of-freedom hinges at simple angles, with no strain during deployment. Strut members are of large diameter with unidirectional graphite fibers for maximum beam performance. Fittings are aluminum with phosphor bronze bushings so that compliance is low and joint lifetime is high. The several beam types required for different applications on the space station will use the same basic design, with changes in strut cross section where necessary. Deployment is by a BI-STEM which pushes the beam out; retraction is by cables which cause initial folding and pull the beam in.

Adams, Louis R.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Metering Wheel-Wire Track Wire Boom Deployment Mechanism

The NASA MMS Spin Plane Double Probe (SDP) Deployer utilizes a helical path, rotating Metering Wheel and a spring loaded Wire "Holding" Track to pay out a "fixed end" 57 meter x 1.5 mm diameter Wire Boom stored between concentric storage cylinders. Unlike rotating spool type storage devices, the storage cylinders remain stationary, and the boom wire is uncoiled along the length of the cylinder via the rotation of the Metering Wheel. This uncoiling action avoids the need for slip-ring contacts since the ends of the wire can remain stationary. Conventional fixed electrical connectors (Micro-D type) are used to terminate to operational electronics.

Granoff, Mark S.↗
NASA NTRS1972

The Apollo 15 deployable boom anomaly

During the Apollo 15 mission, a boom with an attached mass spectrometer was required to retract periodically so that the instrument would not be in the field of view of other experiments. The boom did not fully retract on five of 12 occasions. Data analysis indicated that the boom probably retracted to within approximately 2.54 centimeters (1 inch) of full retraction. The pertinent boom-design details, the events in the mission related to the anomaly, a discussion of the inflight and postflight investigation of the problem, a discussion of the design changes to the boom mechanism as a result of the investigation, and subsequent flight performance are presented.

White, R. D.↗
NASA NTRS2022

SWOT and NISAR Boom Ground Deployment Test Challenges & Resolution

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing two new spacecraft that use radar instruments to characterize temporal changes in the Earth’s surface with unprecedented precision (Figure 1). Both the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) and the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) spacecraft utilize large, precision flight deployable booms to properly position and support their instrument reflectors. The SWOT spacecraft includes two nearly identical reflector booms, each of which have similar flight deployable hinge designs. The NISAR spacecraft has a single reflector boom, with four unique hinge designs. These booms each undergo a multi-staged flight deployment sequence on orbit to transition from the launch stowed configuration to the science configuration within days of launch (Figure 2). The SWOT and NISAR Projects faced significant challenges relevant to requirement verification as well as hardware safety in their approach to ground testing these large flight deployables. This report summarizes flight deployable system design decisions that contributed to ground testing challenges. The report also summarizes the architecture trade study conducted for ground deployment testing. A summary of key issues encountered during flight deployable ground testing with the chosen common gravity offload system ensues, with discussion of the issues and mitigation measures implemented by both Projects that ultimately enabled successful flight subsystem-level full range of motion ground tests. Recommendations and lessons learned are offered to facilitate ground testability of future analogous large scale flight deployables.

Waters, Kyle C.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Deployment study of a self-rigidizable inflatable boom

Deployment dynamic behavior of an inflatable space structure is analyzed using a combination of gas dynamic analysis and rigid body kinematics simulations. Modeling technique is presented for deployment of a simple cantilever boom that is rolled up on a cylindrical mandrel.

inflatable boom deployment dynamics vibration kina↗
NASA NTRS2007

Development of a Deployable Nonmetallic Boom for Reconfigurable Systems of Small Spacecraft

In 2005, NASA commenced Phase 1 of the Modular Reconfigurable High Energy Technology Demonstrator (MRHE) program to investigate reconfigurable systems of small spacecraft. During that year, Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center (ATC) led an accelerated effort to develop a 1-g MRHE concept demonstration featuring robotic spacecraft simulators equipped with docking mechanisms and deployable booms. The deployable boom built for MRHE was the result of a joint effort in which ATK was primarily responsible for developing and fabricating the Collapsible Rollable Tube (CRT patent pending) boom while Lockheed Martin designed and built the motorized Boom Deployment Mechanism (BDM) under a concurrent but separate IR&D program. Tight coordination was necessary to meet testbed integration and functionality requirements. This paper provides an overview of the CRT boom and BDM designs and presents preliminary results of integration and testing to support the MRHE demonstration.

Rehnmark, Fredrik↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Experimental Setup for Mechanically Testing Subscale Triangular, Rollable, and Collapsible Deployable Composite Booms

High-strain composite deployable space structures are used for space infrastructure and science applications such as solar array supports, antennae, camera masts, and lightweight structures supporting solar sailing propulsion elements. Triangular, Rollable, and Collapsible (TRAC) deployable composite booms are one example of a high-strain composite deployable structure and were studied using novel experimental test and characterization methods developed under the Gravity Offloading and Analysis of Long Imperfection-sensitive Elements (GOALIE) project. In the present work, a subscale 7-m-long TRAC boom was suspended vertically to orient gravity along the length of the boom. By orienting vertically, highly nonlinear and unstable behavior often encountered during horizontally oriented gravity offload testing of similar structures was reduced. Pretest analytical predictions of TRAC booms indicated three unique failure modes, loads, and locations for three unique loading cases of in-plane bending, out-of-plane bending, and axial compression. To investigate the predicted behavior, an experimental test was set up to impart mechanical loads to a subscale TRAC boom. The experimental setup, loading cases, and instrumentation used to characterize the mechanical response of a subscale TRAC boom are described in this paper.

Experimental testing↗
NASA NTRS1989

Design and testing of a deployable, retrievable boom for space applications

The Deployable Retrievable Boom which was developed as a part of the joint U.S.-Italian Tethered Satellite System (TSS) is described. The design mission of the boom is to support, deploy, and retrieve an experiment package for the study of the electromagnetic field surrounding the satellite. The mechanism includes a jettisoning provision and deployable harness for the supported payloads connection. The boom is based on a tubular telescopic concept. Particular emphasis is placed on the payload harness connection capability and safety provisions.

Becchi, P.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Thermal static bending of deployable interlocked booms

Metal ribbons processed with a heat-forming treatment are enabled to form tubelike structures when deployed from a roll. Deployable booms of this have been utilized for gravity-gradient stabilization on the RAE, ATS, and Nimbus D satellites. An experimental thermal-mechanics test apparatus was developed to measure the thermal static bending and twist of booms up to 3 meters long. The apparatus was calibrated by using the correlation between calculated and observed thermal bending of a seamless tube. Thermal static bending values of 16 interlocked deployable booms were observed to be within a factor of 2.5 of the values calculated from seamless-tube theory. Out-of-Sun-plane thermal bending was caused by complex heat transfer across the interlocked seam. Significant thermal static twisting was not observed.

Staugaitis, C. L.↗