From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 m
2
drag-deorbiting sail. Its primary aim was to demonstrate the effectiveness of drag based deorbiting from
low Earth orbit
(LEO).
[3]
[4]
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
[
edit
]
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).
[5]
The inflation gas was vented almost immediately after the deployment and rigidization process. Fully folded, the inflatable was just over 6 centimeters (2.4 in) in height.
[6]
Sail structure
[
edit
]
The 10 m
2
sail was made up of four quadrants of 12 μm thick
polyethylene naphthalate
, supported by four
bistable
carbon fiber tape-springs.
[7]
The structure was similar in format to both
NanoSail-D2
[8]
and
LightSail 2
.
[9]
The deployment of the sail was driven by a brushless DC motor.
Spacecraft
[
edit
]
InflateSail included an avionics suite to support the deployable sail payload. The spacecraft was powered by a GOMSpace power system and returned attitude data from the Stellenbosch/Surrey Attitude Determination and Control System.
Communications with ground were executed through the TRXVU Transceiver procured from ISIS, using the UHF band to transmit and the VHF to receive.
Beacon data containing spacecraft parameters were transmitted at 60s intervals at 436.060MHz 1200bd BPSK.
[10]
Launch
[
edit
]
InflateSail was launched on board the
PSLV-C38
as one of 31 passenger satellites. InflateSail was one of 8 QB50 satellites on this launch. PSLV-C38 lifted off at 09:29 (IST)/03:59 (UTC) on 23 June 2017 from
Satish Dhawan Space Centre
in India. InflateSail was ejected into a 518x494km orbit approximately 20 minutes after lift off.
Altitude loss
[
edit
]
InflateSail successfully deployed its sail approximately one hour after ejection from the launch vehicle and was the first European sail successfully deployed in space. InflateSail rapidly lost altitude and decayed on 3 September 2017 after 72 days in orbit.
[2]
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References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Guildford: Space Centre celebrates InflateSail satellite success"
. The Business Magazine. 12 July 2017
. Retrieved
15 July
2017
.
- ^
a
b
"DK3WN SatBlog ≫ Decay"
. Retrieved
6 August
2017
.
- ^
"Surrey Space Centre celebrates successful operation of InflateSail satellite"
.
surrey.ac.uk
. Retrieved
15 July
2017
.
- ^
"InflateSail (QB50 GB06)"
.
Gunter's Space Page
. Retrieved
15 July
2017
.
- ^
Johnson, Les (29 October 2015).
"Status of Solar Sail Propulsion Within NASA"
(PDF)
.
NASA Technical Reports Server
. NASA
. Retrieved
15 July
2017
.
- ^
"InflateSail - eoPortal Directory - Satellite Missions"
.
eoPortal Directory
. Retrieved
15 July
2017
.
- ^
Viquerat, Andrew; Schenk, Mark; Lappas, Vaios (5?9 January 2015).
"Functional and Qualification Testing of the InflateSail Technology Demonstrator"
.
2nd AIAA Spacecraft Structures Conference, AIAA SciTech Forum
.
doi
:
10.2514/6.2015-1627
.
hdl
:
1983/76666caf-fe7e-4ccf-a72b-3085b942f7b5
.
- ^
Alhorn, Dean; Casas, Joseph; Agasid, Elwood; Adams, Charles; Laue, Greg; Kitts, Christopher; O'Brien, Sue (2011).
"NanoSail-D: The Small Satellite That Could!"
.
Proceedings of the AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites
.
- ^
"LightSail"
. Retrieved
17 July
2017
.
- ^
"QB50 DPAC GB06-InflateSail Spacecraft Data"
. Archived from
the original
on 29 December 2020
. Retrieved
21 July
2017
.
- ^
"Heavens-above.org"
.
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January
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February
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March
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April
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May
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June
|
- QZS-2
- ViaSat-2
,
Eutelsat 172B
- Dragon CRS-11
(
NICER
,
BRAC Onnesha
,
GhanaSat-1
,
Mazaalai
,
Nigeria EduSat-1
)
- GSAT-19
- EchoStar 21
- Progress MS-06
- HXMT / Insight
,
NuSat 3
- ChinaSat 9A
- Cartosat-2E
,
Max Valier Sat
,
Aalto-1
,
Blue Diamond
,
Green Diamond
,
Red Diamond
,
CICERO-6
,
COMPASS-2
,
InflateSail
,
Lemur-2
× 8
,
LituanicaSAT-2
,
ROBUSTA-1B
- Kosmos 2519
/ Nivelir,
Kosmos 2521
/ Sputnik Inspektor
- BulgariaSat-1
- Iridium NEXT
× 10
- EuropaSat / Hellas Sat 3
,
GSAT-17
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July
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August
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September
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October
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November
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December
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Launches are separated by dots ( ? ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ).
Crewed flights
are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
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