Design and analysis of a 3U cubesat for material exposure experiments in space

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Ντίνος, Ανδρέας
• Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Dinos, Andreas
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: 2023
• Θέματα: Cubesat; Material degradation; Computer-Aided Design (CAD); Kinematic analysis; Finite Element Analysis (FEA); Μικροδορυφόροι; Υποβάθμιση υλικών; Σχεδιασμός με χρήση υπολογιστή; Κινηματική ανάλυση; Ανάλυση με χρήση πεπερασμένων στοιχείων

Space is an unfriendly environment, where the materials of the space shuttle mission are going to face significant challenging conditions. As a result, a big part of the ongoing research concerns the materials’ degradation under space conditions. However, the ideal way to achieve this is by sending an actual space shuttle into space, exposing the materials to the environment, and inspecting them in a non-destructive way. Still, the economic aspect is an obstacle for universities to apply their knowledge in this particular research field. On the other side, the participation of universities in aerospace has grown dramatically over the last few years, with more and more technical departments designing and sending nanosatellites into space. The aim of the present thesis is the design a 3U CubeSat, which will include a deployable part for conducting a material exposure experiment in space, recording the samples through a camera, and transferring the results to Earth for further analysis. After completing the necessary bibliographic review, in the first phase all the components of the satellite designed using CATIA are presented in detail. Then and after the required specifications related to the geometry of the satellite have been checked, the deployment part of the structure is kinematically analyzed in the ADAMS software, where three different torsional springs are compared to be used for the purposes of the experiment. Finally, the designed model is imported into ANSYS finite element software in order to perform the necessary analyses and verify its structural integrity, examining its behavior under quasi-static and dynamic loadings