A deployable telescope imaging system with coilable tensegrity structure for microsatellite application

Chao Zhao; Chuang Li; Nan Zhou

doi:10.1117/12.2033266

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21 August 2013 A deployable telescope imaging system with coilable tensegrity structure for microsatellite application

Chao Zhao, Chuang Li, Nan Zhou

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Proceedings Volume 8908, International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2013: Imaging Sensors and Applications; 89081B (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2033266
Event: ISPDI 2013 - Fifth International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging, 2013, Beijing, China

Abstract

Microsatellites will be widely applied as an earth-observing platform in coming future for their low costs. Such satellite missions require optical payloads with low cost, low mass and small volume. In order to meet these requirements, one way is to develop deployable telescopes. They not only maintain the capabilities of the traditional non-deployable telescopes, but also have compacter launch volume and lighter weight. We investigate a telescope with precise deployable structure based on coilable tensegrity. Before launch, the secondary mirror support structure is coiled, and when the satellite is in orbit, the secondary mirror is deployed with the elastic strain energy from the coiled longerons. There are mainly three parts in this paper. Firstly, the telescope optics is presented. A Ritchey-Chretien (RC) type optical system with 150mm aperture is designed. Secondly, the deployable telescope structure is designed for the RC system. The deployable structure mainly consists of coilable longerons, batten rings, and diagonal stringers. The finite element method (FEM) is used to analyze the dynamics of the unfolded telescope structure. Thirdly, the adjusting mechanism for secondary mirror is discussed. Piezoelectric actuators can be used to achieve remote alignment to improve the performance of the imaging system.

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Chao Zhao, Chuang Li, and Nan Zhou "A deployable telescope imaging system with coilable tensegrity structure for microsatellite application", Proc. SPIE 8908, International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2013: Imaging Sensors and Applications, 89081B (21 August 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2033266

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