Abstract
This paper presents the development of a deployment mechanism for the first demonstration mission of the Electrical Sail (Esail) propulsion concept. The mechanism will fly on Estonia’s first satellite, the EstCube-1 picosatellite. The major goals of this mission are the deployment of a 10-m tether by the WRECKER mechanism and the positive charging of the tether to interact with Earth’s ionosphere. The force acting on the tether will be measured to demonstrate the functionality of the Esail concept. The WRECKER mechanism can be further established as a standard tether deployment mechanism for deorbiting picosatellites.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
European Code of Conduct for Space Debris Mitigation, ESA, June 2004
Janhunen, P.: Electric sail for spacecraft propulsion. J. Prop. Power, 2004
Janhunen, P.: The Electric Sail—a new propulsion method which may enable fast missions to the outer solar system. JBIS, 2008
ESTCube, Team.: ESTCube-1 space system and mission description phase A, final document, May 2011
Janhunen, P.: Analytic calculation of ESTCube-1 tether spin, May 2010
Rosta, R.: Entwicklung und Konstruktion des Esail-Draht-Abwickelmechanismus für den ESTCub-1 Satelliten, Sept 2010
Seppänen, H.: Wire-to-wire bonding of µm-diameter aluminum wires for the Electric Solar Wind Sail, 2011
http://www.electric-sailing.com, download August 2012
Rauhala, T., et al.: Automatic 4-wire Heytether production for the Electric Solar Wind Sail, Jan 2013
ECSS-E-30 Part A Mechanical, ESA Publications Division ESTEC, Noordwijk, April 2000
http://www.jaxa.jp/pr/brochure/pdf/04/sat28.pdf, download January 2014
http://www.electric-sailing.com/fp7/, download January 2014
http://www.electric-sailing.com/SWEST/, download January 2014
Kulu, E.: Estcube-1 Nanosatellite for electric solar sail demonstration on low earth orbit, 64th International Astronautic Congress, 2014
http://electronics.physics.helsinki.fi/research/wire-bonding/, download April 2014
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piezomotor_type_bimorph.gif, download May 2014
http://www.attocube.com/attomotion/premium-line/anr101/, download May 2014
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
German acronym: Weltraum Abrollmechanismus für dünnen elektrisch leitenden Draht.
This paper is based on a presentation at the German Aerospace Congress, September 10–12, 2012, Berlin, Germany.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rosta, R., Krömer, O., Zoest, T.v. et al. Wrecker: an unreeling mechanism for a thin electrically conductive space tether. CEAS Space J 7, 53–68 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12567-015-0080-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12567-015-0080-6