A general review is presented of the highlights associated with the mechanical engineering of the Canadian Alouette I end I 1 spacecraft. Of special interest was the development of the extendible ionospheric sounding antenna, first used to form 75-ft by 150-ft tip-to-tip crossed dipoles on Alouatte I. The use of such long antennas made Alouette I the first earth satellite to be launched that exhibited flexible body characteristics over a long period of timeyears, in fact. The problems concerned with the design and use of the antennas and how their flexibility affected the dynamics of Alouette sqtellites in orbit are reviewed. The most significant resuk obtained from the mechanical engineering aspects of the Alouette program was the discovery of the phenomenon of passive spin of symmetrical flexible bodies by coupling of the sun's thermal,and radiation (photon) pressure fields. The effect of this mechanism on the spin behaviors of Alouette I and I 1 is described.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.