Mission Design for the CubeSat OUFTI-1

CHAPTER 6.STRUCTURE AND DEPLOYMENT6.3 Deployment SystemThe deployment system is designed to provide a standard secondary payloadinterface between the CubeSats and the launch vehicle. Its key features are, onthe one hand, to protect the launch vehicle and its main passenger from anymechanical, electrical or electromagnetic interference from the CubeSats in theevent of a catastrophic picosatellite failure and, on the other hand, to releasethe CubeSats with a minimum spin and without any collision.The fact that the structure for a CubeSat is fixed allows the development of standarddeployment systems, usually called Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (POD).Currently there are four different deployment system:• P-POD: Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer. Developed by the StanfordUniversity (Stanford, CA, USA) and the California Polytechnic Institute(San Luis Obispo, CA, USA), it holds three single CubeSats stacked ontop on each other• T-POD: Tokyo-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer. Developed by the TechnicalUniversity of Tokyo (Japan), it holds a single CubeSat• X-POD: eXperimental-Push Out Deployer. Developed by the Space FlightLaboratory (SFL) of the University of Toronto Institute of AeroSpace(UTIAS) (Canada), it’a custom, independent separation system for threeCubeSats and can be tailored for satellites of different size• SPL: Single-picosatellite Launcher. Developed by Astrofein (Berlin, Germany)it’a a custom deployment system for a single CubeSatAs explained in [RD2], the deployment system for the Vega maiden flight issupplied by the Educational Office of the European Space Agency. Among thepossible choices, they selected the two standard flight-proven POD of the CaliforniaState University (P-POD) and of Toronto University (X-POD). Each oneof them can carry three CubeSats fastened with an electrically activated springloadedmechanism. After a signal is sent from the launch vehicle to release themechanism, the spring-loaded door is open and the CubeSats are pushed out bythe main spring along guidance rails, ejecting them into orbit with a separationspeed of few m/s. The door open anywhere between 90 ◦ and 260 ◦ , measuredfrom its closed position, depending on how the POD is mounted. The two foreseenPOD have the only main difference that the X-POD has an independentrelease mechanism for the spring deployer and feedback to indicate that thedeployment has taken place.The POD is a rectangular box made of high-strength Aluminium 7075-T73.It’s also coated Teflon-impregnated anodization to prevent cold-welding andGalli Stefania 61 University of Liège