Tiny, hold in your hand satellites, are dubbed CubeSats. They hitch rides on boosters carrying larger satellites.
CubeSats can conduct all types of experiments, from Earth remote sensing to monitoring the space environment.
According to Stanford news writer, Louis Bergeron, researchers at the university report that they have completed the first successful tests in zero gravity of a “canopy” for CubeSats. The goal is to gather data on what happens when micrometeoroids slam into a satellite.
Nicolas Lee, a graduate student in aeronautics and astronautics, and several colleagues have designed a canopy to pop out of a tiny CubeSat. The idea is that the canopy can absorb the impacts of micrometeoroids, also known as “interplanetary flyspecks.”
Tiny meteoroids travel at tremendous speeds (more than 250,000 kilometers per hour) and can pack a hefty punch when they strike a spacecraft.
Since the impact disrupts the satellite’s electronics, no one knows exactly how the micrometeoroid causes the damage.
But Lee’s advisor, Sigrid Close, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, has a theory.
NASA-provided micro-gravity
Close suspects the meteoroid instantly vaporizes into free electrons and ions that float around in a little ball. As that ball expands in the vacuum of space, it gives off energy at radio frequencies that interfere with the electronic equipment on the satellite, disrupting communications and other essential functions.
As a first step in field-testing their CubeSat canopy concept, Lee and fellow graduate students Shandor Dektor and Joseph Johnson recently tested their canopies in zero gravity aboard a NASA airplane flying parabolic arcs over the Gulf of Mexico.
The team tested three prototypes of the canopy, each a square meter in area.
One design was thin mylar, rolled up in a spiral pattern inside the little black CubeSat box.
Another design had the mylar folded to expand in a radial pattern.
The third design used the spiral unfolding, but with a thicker membrane for the canopy.
For all the designs, the unfolding was powered by struts made of common metal tape measures rolled up with the canopies.
As the CubeSat canopy testing progresses, Stanford professor Close sees long-term potential not only in protecting satellites but also in recording what spacecraft experience in orbit.
“This could lead to devices that could be attached to satellites just like a black box in an airplane,” Close said.
Take a look at this Stanford-issued video that details the new CubeSat research:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvan64acziI&feature=player_embedded
By LD/CSE