ground testing of a 8-meter 4-quadrant scalable solar sail
- Paper number
IAC-15,C2,2,9,x29885
- Author
Dr. Xinghua Zhang, Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China
- Coauthor
Dr. Yufei Liu, Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China
- Coauthor
Prof. Li Wang, Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China Aerospace Science And Technology Corporation, China
- Coauthor
Ms. ZhengAi Cheng, Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China
- Coauthor
Ms. Xiaoqi Huang, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China
- Coauthor
Dr. Chen Yang, Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China
- Coauthor
Prof. Hui Wang, Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China
- Coauthor
Dr. Meng Li, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China
- Coauthor
Mr. Zili Liu, Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China
- Coauthor
Dr. Na Yao, Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China
- Year
2015
- Abstract
Solar sails are thin film space structures which span very large areas. Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, CAST is designing a 160m solar sail and developing a 8m scalable solar sail. This paper describes the structure static tests of a 8 meters 4-quadrant scalable solar sail, which are conducted for the purpose of validating analytical models that will be required by a flight test program to predict in space performance. Two kinds of sails are tested, one is 12.5$\mu$m thickness aluminized Kapton and the other is 25$\mu$m Kapton. The 4-quadrant solar sail is connected from the three corners to the end of the inflation deployed masts. The sail is suspended horizontally, and the tension forces at the corner vary from 10N to 50N. The sail billows due to the gravity in the 1g environment and wrinkled due to the tension force at the corner. A laser scanner is applied to measure the deformation and morphology of the sail and obtain the continuous and smooth surface, where the in-plane and the out-plane surface measurement accuracies are higher than 0.2mm and 1mm separately. Results show that laser scanning is an effective method to measure the large area thin film structures. For the 25$\mu$m sail, the maximum deflection decreases from 430mm to 120mm with the increasing tension forces from 10N to 50N, and the depth to sail size is about 5.4\% to 1.5\%.For the 12.5$\mu$m sail, the maximum deflection decreases from 325mm to 115mm with the increasing tension forces, and the depth to sail size is about 4.1\% to 1.4\%.The deflection decreases with the increasing tension forces, and tends to be constant when the force is above 40N. The difference between the deflection of the two kinds of sails tend to be close as the tension force is above 30N. Wrinkles appear at the corners of the sail, the direction of which is approximately the same as the tension force direction and the maximum wrinkle is about 50mm wide and 20mm high.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-15,C2,2,9,x29885.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.