A mechanical deployment structure for the PowerSphere concept [space power]

The development of Picosatellites and Nanosatellites for low Earth orbits requires the collection of sufficient power for onboard instruments with a low-weight, low-volume spacecraft. Because the overall surface area of these satellites is small, body-mounted solar cells are incapable of providing enough power. Deployment of traditional, rigid, solar arrays necessitates larger satellite volumes and weights, and also requires extra apparatus needed for pointing. A solution to this "power choke" problem is the deployment of a thin-film solar array with omni-directional solar collection capabilities. The array would have a high collection area, low weight and low stowage volume, and eliminates the need for a pointing mechanism. This paper considers several omni-directional deployable array geometries and details a mechanism for deploying them. The packaged size, deployed size and expected minimum illuminated area are compared using an DARPA-Aerospace Picosatellite as the anticipated host satellite.