CubeSat-Deployable Photon Sieve Design for Strength and a High Degree of Deployment Control

Abstract

Presented is a structural architecture for a CubeSat-deployable photon sieve with d =30 cm diameter circular aperture, with a high degree of deployment control and high deployed strength. The design features a spiral-folded arc-triangular membrane sheet with so-called radial edge catenaries on the sides, stretched by a spreader-reinforced support frame of bistable tapes. The tapes have variable cross sections which streamline their deployment from spools at the frame edge midpoints where the spreader bars join the frame sides. Each frame edge midpoint, in turn, is supported by a leg. During deployment, the three legs first synchronously open up from z-folded stowage, then rotate and move while the frame unrolls from the spools at their ends. This concept, which is unusual in the CubeSat scenario where trivial simplicity is typically preferred over control, has many innovative elements that offer novel solutions to various deployment challenges. Some of these innovations may constitute the most attractive practical solutions for large photon sieves that no longer fit the CubeSat platform and are sensitive due to their size to deployment process imperfections.

Three-Point Suspension for Circular Membrane Apertures

“…The support force F s is the same for all variations, but the support footprint is drastically reduced by the revisions. The photon sieve design with three-point suspension involving corner fly beams is discussed in the companion paper to the present work [7].…”