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InflateSail
InflateSail was a 3U CubeSat launched on PSLV C38 on 23 June 2017 into a 505 km polar Sun-synchronous orbit. It carried a 1 m long inflatable rigidizable mast, and a 10 m2 drag-deorbiting sail. Its primary aim was to demonstrate the effectiveness of drag based deorbiting from low Earth orbit (LEO). Built by Surrey Space Centre of the University of Surrey, it was one of the Technology Demonstrator CubeSats for the QB50 A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ... mission. An identical drag sail payload was planned to be included on the RemoveDEBRIS demonstrator. Inflatable mast The inflatable mast was deployed first to distance the sail from the main body of the satellite. The inflatable skin was a 3-ply, 45 µm thick metal-polymer laminate which used the same strain ri ...
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InflateSail August
InflateSail was a 3U CubeSat launched on PSLV C38 on 23 June 2017 into a 505 km polar Sun-synchronous orbit. It carried a 1 m long inflatable rigidizable mast, and a 10 m2 drag-deorbiting sail. Its primary aim was to demonstrate the effectiveness of drag based deorbiting from low Earth orbit (LEO). Built by Surrey Space Centre of the University of Surrey, it was one of the Technology Demonstrator CubeSats for the QB50 mission. An identical drag sail payload was planned to be included on the RemoveDEBRIS demonstrator. Inflatable mast The inflatable mast was deployed first to distance the sail from the main body of the satellite. The inflatable skin was a 3-ply, 45 µm thick metal-polymer laminate which used the same strain rigidization process as the Echo 2 balloon. The inflation gas was stored in two cool gas generators (CGGs). The inflation gas was vented almost immediately after the deployment and rigidization process. Fully folded, the inflatable was just over in height. ...
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InflateSail FM Sail Deployed
InflateSail was a 3U CubeSat launched on PSLV C38 on 23 June 2017 into a 505 km polar Sun-synchronous orbit. It carried a 1 m long inflatable rigidizable mast, and a 10 m2 drag-deorbiting sail. Its primary aim was to demonstrate the effectiveness of drag based deorbiting from low Earth orbit (LEO). Built by Surrey Space Centre of the University of Surrey, it was one of the Technology Demonstrator CubeSats for the QB50 mission. An identical drag sail payload was planned to be included on the RemoveDEBRIS demonstrator. Inflatable mast The inflatable mast was deployed first to distance the sail from the main body of the satellite. The inflatable skin was a 3-ply, 45 µm thick metal-polymer laminate which used the same strain rigidization process as the Echo 2 balloon. The inflation gas was stored in two cool gas generators (CGGs). The inflation gas was vented almost immediately after the deployment and rigidization process. Fully folded, the inflatable was just over in height. ...
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Von Karman Institute For Fluid Dynamics
The von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI) is a non-profit educational and scientific organization which specializes in three specific fields: aeronautics and aerospace, environment and applied fluid dynamics, turbomachinery and propulsion. Founded in 1956, it is located in Sint-Genesius-Rode, Belgium. About The von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics is a non-profit international, educational and scientific organization which is working in three specific fields: ''aeronautics and aerospace, environment and applied fluid dynamics, turbomachinery and propulsion''. The VKI provides education in these specific areas for students from all over the world. A hundred students come to the Institute each year to study fluid dynamics, for a PhD programme, a research master in Fluid Dynamics, a final year project and also to gather further knowledge while doing a work placement in a specific area. Each year, Lecture Series and events are being organized inside and outside of th ...
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Echo 2 (balloon)
Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each of the two American spacecraft, launched in 1960 and 1964, were metalized balloon satellites acting as passive reflectors of microwave signals. Communication signals were transmitted from one location on Earth and bounced off the surface of the satellite to another Earth location. The first transmissions using Echo were sent from Goldstone, California to Holmdel, New Jersey on 12 August 1960. The last Echo satellite deorbited and burned up in the atmosphere on 7 June 1969.Astronautix.com, ''Echo''


Background

The concept of using orbital satellites to relay communications predated space travel, first being advanced by

Folded Inflatable FM
Fold, folding or foldable may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Fold'' (album), the debut release by Australian rock band Epicure *Fold (poker), in the game of poker, to discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot *Above the fold and below the fold, the positioning of news items on a newspaper's front page according to perceived importance *Paper folding, or ''origami'', the art of folding paper Science, technology, and mathematics Biology *Protein folding, the physical process by which a polypeptide folds into its characteristic and functional three-dimensional structure **Folding@home, a powerful distributed-computing project for simulating protein folding * Fold coverage, quality of a DNA sequence *Skin fold, an area of skin that folds Computing *Fold (higher-order function), a type of programming operation on data structures *fold (Unix), a computer program used to wrap lines to fit in a specified width *Folding (DSP implementation), a transformatio ...
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LightSail 2
LightSail is a project to demonstrate controlled solar sailing within low Earth orbit using a CubeSat. The project was developed by The Planetary Society, a global non-profit organization devoted to space exploration. It consists of two spacecraft — LightSail 1 and LightSail 2. LightSail 1 was an engineering demonstration mission designed to test its new sail deployment method in space, it did not perform solar sailing. LightSail 2 was a fully functional spacecraft intended to demonstrate true solar sailing and incorporated the lessons learned from LightSail 1. LightSail is a follow-on project to ''Cosmos 1'' — a solar-sail spacecraft designed by The Planetary Society in the early 2000s, which was destroyed during a launch failure in 2005. Both LightSail spacecraft measured (3U CubeSat) in their stowed configuration. After sail deployment, the total area of each spacecraft was . History In 2005, The Planetary Society attempted to send a solar sail satellite named ''Cosmo ...
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NanoSail-D2
NanoSail-D2 was a small satellite built by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center to study the deployment of a solar sail in space. It was a three-unit CubeSat, measuring with a mass of . Its solar sail had an area of , and was deployed in around five seconds. It was planned to be deployed from the FASTSAT satellite around 3 December 2010, two weeks after launch. The satellite did not eject at that time, but on 17 January 2011, it ejected on its own and deployed its sail three days later on 20 January 2011. The beacon signal began transmitting after ejection and was first received on the afternoon of 19 January 2011. Chronology NanoSail-D2 was originally built as a ground spare for the NanoSail-D satellite, which was launched aboard a Falcon 1 in 2008, and was subsequently lost when the launch vehicle malfunctioned during stage separation. Over the next two years improvements were made to the spare, and the satellite was incorporated into the FASTSAT ...
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Bistable Structure
In mechanical engineering, a bistable structure is one that has two stable mechanical shapes, particularly where they are stabilized by different curvature axes. A common example of a bistable structure is a slap bracelet A slap bracelet (or snap bracelet) was a bracelet invented by Wisconsin teacher Stuart Anders in 1983, sold originally under the brand name of "Slap Wrap". Consisting of layered, flexible stainless steel bistable spring bands sealed within a fa .... Bistable structures enable long tube-like structures to roll up into small cylinders. References Geometric shapes Structural engineering {{engineering-stub ...
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Polyethylene Naphthalate
Polyethylene naphthalate (poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate) or PEN) is a polyester derived from naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylic acid and ethylene glycol. As such it is related to poly(ethylene terephthalate), but with superior barrier properties. Production Two major manufacturing routes exist for polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), i.e. an ester or an acid process, named according to whether the starting monomer is a diester or a diacid derivative, respectively. In both cases for PEN, the glycol monomer is ethylene glycol. Solid-state polymerization (SSP) of the melt-produced resin pellets is the preferred process to increase the average molecular weight of PEN. Applications Because it provides a very good oxygen barrier, it is well-suited for bottling beverages that are susceptible to oxidation, such as beer. It is also used in making high performance sailcloth. Significant commercial markets have been developed for its application in textile and industrial fibers, films, and foamed a ...
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