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Improvement of sail storage and deployment mechanism for spin-type solar power sail

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A Correction to this article was published on 11 February 2022

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Abstract

Deployable membrane structures are expected to be used for large-area space structures, such as solar propulsion sails, magnetoplasma sails, drag-deorbiting sails, membrane antennas, and solar power sails. They are lightweight and can be compactly stored at launch. One achievement of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was the successful deployment of a 200 m2 sail using centrifugal force in the IKAROS mission, which was the first solar propulsion sail-craft in history. JAXA has long been studying the technology of spin deployment of sail membranes, and is currently planning the spin deployment of a class sail larger than 2000 m2 as the next step in the development of the IKAROS technology. This paper discusses the unexpected behaviors during on-orbit sail deployment by IKAROS, as well as problems with the sail holding method, and proposes an improved sail storage structure and deployment mechanism for the OKEANOS mission.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, 252-5210, Japan

    Osamu Mori & Nobukatsu Okuizumi

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, 152-8550, Japan

    Toshihiro Chujo

  3. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-8654, Japan

    Yuki Takao

Authors
  1. Osamu Mori
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  2. Nobukatsu Okuizumi
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  3. Toshihiro Chujo
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  4. Yuki Takao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Osamu Mori.

Additional information

Osamu Mori received his Ph.D. degree in engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, in 2002. He is currently an assistant professor at Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. His research includes spacecraft systems, multibody dynamics, guidance, navigation and control. He is a project manager of the IKAROS mission and a core member of the OKEANOS mission.

Nobukatsu Okuizumi received his bachelor, master, and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1989, 1991, and 1998, respectively. He is an assistant professor at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. His research interests include lightweight deployable structures, spacecraft structures, and nonlinear dynamics of mechanical and structural systems. He has also been engaged in the development of various scientific spacecrafts such as Akatsuki, IKAROS, Hayausa2, etc.

Toshihiro Chujo received his Ph.D. degree in engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 2017. He is currently an assistant professorat Tokyo Institute of Technology. He was previously a postdoctoral researcher at Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), working on the Solar Power Sail OKEANOS mission and the Transformable Spacecraft mission. His main field of study is spacecraft system, mission analysis, and astrodynamics.

Yuki Takao received his bachelor and master degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 2015 and 2017, respectively. He is now pursuing his Ph.D. degree in the University of Tokyo under the direction of Prof. Kawaguchi. His research specialties are astrodynamics, spacecraft navigation, structural dynamics, and especially, solar sails. His master’s thesis focused on active shape control of solar sail membrane. He received JAXA President Award at the 31st International Symposium on Space Technology and Science for his work on the topic. He has been working on the Solar Power Sail OKEANOS mission and the Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa2 mission at Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

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Mori, O., Okuizumi, N., Chujo, T. et al. Improvement of sail storage and deployment mechanism for spin-type solar power sail. Astrodyn 4, 223–231 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42064-019-0063-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42064-019-0063-z

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