Development and qualification of deployable flexible solar arrays for space applications

Abstract

The trend towards miniaturization in the space industry, particularly with CubeSats, offers new opportunities but also poses challenges, especially in power generation and subsystem integration. In that context, the ongoing developments pursue increase in volume and mass specific power by utilizing deployable structures. At the German Aerospace Center such research is carried out within the ESA funded DEAR project, in which a deployable solar array is developed, that generates 100W within a 1 U CubeSat stowing volume. This master’s thesis contributes to the development and qualification of deployable flexible solar arrays. While the work solves specific problems for this project, it should be understood as an example that could also be applied in the context of other projects in that field. This work includes strategies for hardware design and its qualification, especially of the solar array blanket. This thesis covers the design of the system, the engineering model test campaign, evaluates system compliance with requirements, and discusses necessary adaptations for the PLUTO mission, a 6 U CubeSat in-orbit demonstration mission. Specifically, the design of certain components is further developed and CAD models are implemented. Furthermore, the verification of the system through an extensive test campaign, including mechanical and thermal-vacuum testing, is carried out. The test campaign showed the resilience of the DEAR system to various stresses, with minimal performance loss despite minor cell damage. The system successfully deployed under cold and vacuum conditions. The adaptation for the PLUTO mission involved refining the actuation design and making necessary adaptations for integration. The thesis concludes that with further refinement, the DEAR system is well suited for future CubeSat missions and scalable for larger satellite applications.